Aerial photo taken on June 20, 2018 shows the site of a closed mine in the Qilian Mountains national nature reserve in Jinchang, northwest China's Gansu Province. The Qilian Mountains, on the border of Gansu and Qinghai provinces, was designated a national nature reserve in 1988. However, many illegal mining projects and hydropower stations have sprung up as a result of lax supervision in recent years, inflicting significant damage to the environment. Provincial authorities have revised local environmental protection regulations to ban production activities, including mining, in the core and buffer zones of the Qilian Mountains nature reserve. Other measures include closing hydropower stations and relocating herders in efforts to protect the national nature reserve. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen)
