Monkey see, humans do

Golden monkeys in Hubei's Shennongjia. [Photos by Wen Zhenxiao/Huang Yiming/Zhao Renbao/Liu Bingsheng/China Daily]

Golden monkeys scamper through this forest reserve in Hubei province.

Legend whispers that another primate lumbers along this territory－the Yeren, or Wild Man－China's Big Foot.

That said, the place itself is named after a pseudo-mythical horned pharmacologist from whom all ethnic Han are believed to have descended.

Basically, Shennong is like a Chinese Abraham with an ox scalp, who gobbled unidentified herbs to discover if they wielded medicinal purposes－or poison. (It's said his intestines ruptured, fatally, after he digested a toxic yellow flower.)

The UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve remains a botanist's playground.

Roughly 3,500 species of flora flourish. So do golden monkeys－and, perhaps consequently, the lore of Yeren.