Baishan is on both the Biodiversity Charming Cities list and the Nature Cities list. [Photo/Jilin Release]

Baishan in Northeast China's Jilin province was named to both the Biodiversity Charming Cities list and the Nature Cities list at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Armenia.

With forest coverage reaching 84.6 percent, the highest among China's prefecture-level cities, Baishan is home to diverse ecosystems and abundant wildlife. The Songhua and Yalu rivers flow through the city, and its total water resources amount to 8.03 billion cubic meters, with per capita water resources 2.7 times the national average.

Baishan has designated more than 10,000 square kilometers as ecological conservation redlines and established 27 protected areas. More than 1,500 species of wild higher plants and over 400 species of wild vertebrates thrive here. Rare species include Siberian tigers, scaly-sided mergansers, and Siberian musk deer.

An idyllic autumn view of Baishan. [Photo/Jilin Release]

This recognition reflects broader progress in biodiversity conservation across Jilin. In the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, wild Siberian tiger numbers have risen from 27 in 2017, when the pilot program began, to 72, while leopard numbers have increased from 42 to 115.

As of March this year, the province's scaly-sided merganser population had stabilized at more than 600, double previous levels. The Xianghai National Nature Reserve and Momoge Wetland also serve as vital stopovers for migratory white cranes, with more than 90 percent of the birds passing through the wetland corridor on their southward migration each year.