Yunnan animal preserve is a monkey kingdom

Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys are popular among people because of their humanlike faces with bright red lips. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A reserve in Yunnan offers insights into a rare simian species' lives - and humans. Wang Kaihao and Li Yingqing report from Diqing, Yunnan.

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise - and more likely to see black snub-nosed monkeys in Yunnan province's Weixi county.

The county in the Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture hosts a national park created to protect the rare primates, which visitors are more likely to spot soon after sunrise.

Guests discover sacrificing some shuteye is worth the eye-opening epiphanies they may encounter. Many explain the experience goes beyond viewing the creatures in the wild to consequently changing their worldviews about their own habitats.

They hop aboard electric carts and next hike up the mountainside for 40 minutes in the hope of seeing the simians, about 50 of which dwell in the park's snowy mountains.