The Site is located in Mohe City, the northernmost city of the country, which lies in the low hilly area of the Grand Khingan mountains along the southern bank of the Heilongjiang River. The Emuer River, a tributary of the Heilongjiang, forms large areas of mudflats, oxbow lakes, various types of marshes, and thick peat layers along its river banks. The wetland ecosystem is dominated by cold-temperate coniferous forest with typical characteristics of East Siberian vegetation. However, the majority of the forest area is secondary and is in a state of recovery after a huge forest fire in 1987. The diverse wetland types provide suitable habitats for rare and threatened plant and animal species such as Chosenia arbutifolia, a tree in the willow family, white-naped crane (Grus vipio) and lesser white-fronted goose (Anser erythropus). The Site is the northernmost breeding and resting place of whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), and is the southernmost region of distribution for boreal or arctic species such as Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus) and arctic warbler (Phylloscopus borealis). The prevailing large concentration of peats and permafrost makes the Site important from a climate change perspective.