For the main purpose of preserving rare wild animals such as giant panda, golden monkey and takin, the Tangjiahe Nature Reserve was set up in 1978 with an area of 40,000 hectares including the forest area of 17,000 hectares. The Reserve is located on the northwestern fringe of the Sichuan Basin in Qingchuan County,and on the transitional belt between the northern extremity of the Hengduan Mountains and the Qinghai - Tibet Plateau. Because there was no large area of ice cover formed by glaciation during Quaternary Period, many ancient species of biota have been preserved. According to statistics, the Reserve houses over 3,100 species of higher plants including over 10 species of rare trees such as dove tree .tetracentraceae, Chinese catalpa, bark of eucommia, etc. With its typical vertical spectrum of vegetation, the Reserve possesses 310 species of vertebrates including 25 species of rare wild animals under key national protection .such as giant panda, golden monkey, takin, clouded leopard, green-tailed monal .blue-eared pheasant .red-bellied golden pheasant, giant salamander, etc. Having a total of 17 species,the babbling thrush living in scrubs is the largest group among birds in number and type.

With a larger quantity and being concentratedly distributed, the giant panda lives mainly at elevations of 1.700 to 3.000 meters above sea level. This area is covered with mixed coniferous - broadleaf forests. Set up in the Reserve, the Baixingping ecological observation station-the second field giant panda positioning observation station in China is famous at home and abroad, and plays a great role in scientific research on ecosystem and protection of wildlife resources.