This is a list of the nationally protected areas of China. There are many forms of protected areas in China. Based on their relative importance, each type of protected area can be further graded into two to three levels (national, provincial and prefectural/county level). Nevertheless, the highest rank for "pocket nature reserve" (social and mass-based), "no-hunting area", "no-fishing area", "no-logging area", "wild medicinal material resources conservation area", "crop germplasm resources conservation area", "forest tree germplasm resources conservation area" or "source water protection area" is practically restricted to provincial level. The local government at county level is also responsible for the delimitation and declaration of "basic farmland protection area" and "basic grassland". Qinling National Botanical Garden, said to be the world's largest (458 km2), is still under construction.
Take note that many protected areas in China have multiple official designations, and the statutory boundaries of these multi-designated PAs may be identical or may vary one from the other. For instance, the boundaries of Huangshan NP coincide with those of the Huangshan NGP, whereas Fujian province's Wuyi Mountains NNR, NP and NFP are adjacent to each other. In Heilongjiang, 27,642.14 hectares out of 115,340.27 hectares of Huzhong NFP are intersected with the experiment zone of Huzhong NNR.
†: The official name is yet to be verified.
†: From May 23, 2009 onwards, the approval process for awarding the NGP qualifications and naming the NGPs are treated separately by the Ministry. Each NGP-prequalified unit is required to complete a site development within the three-year time limit before gaining formal status as a NGP.
††: current status unknown.
†1/†2/+3/+4/+5: one identical institution under two different names.
†i: partially overlapped.
Note: The above-mentioned "crucian carp" generally refers to Carassius auratus, unless otherwise noted.