Known as "Paradise of Gibbon", the Bawangling Nature Reserve has been developed from 1980 as a sanctuary for precious black gibbon, covering 5639 hectares.
The Reserve is one of the major forests in Hainan Province. At altitudes of 350 to 1438 m above sea level the climate is warm and damp, and over 1000 species known trees grow in dense patches. Longleaf podocarpus, camphor tree, Japanese elder, sugar apple and camellia are most prominent, and the rare plants are Hainan keteleeria, Hainan bushbeech, chittagong chickrassy and pierre dacrydium. There are 180 species of wildlife, of which the gibbon, rhesus macaque and peacock pheasant are under key state protection.

The gibbon, though small, is tailless like the great apes, living in group of varying size. In China black gibbons haunt the tropical forests in Hainan Province and northern Yunnan Province under key state protecion. They can walk in the upright position and indeed habitually do so, on the rare occasions when they come to the ground, for they usually move by swinging themselves by their hands from bough to bough. The colours of this species varies from black to light yellowish, the females are of lighter colour than the males. Their chief natural food are vegetable growth, including fruits, berries, leaves and shoots.

There are only 20 black gibbons in Bawangling Nature Reserve.