Current knowledge indicates that it has a very limited range of less than 50 km² in the Bat Dai Son mountains of northern Ha Giang Province on the Chinese border, Viet Nam. Within this area it is restricted to the ridges and summits. It is scarce or rare in its habitat, scattered (not present on all ridges and summits visited so far). It does not, as previously thought (see Farjon et al. 2002), occur on the lower slopes or in the valleys as these, where forest is still intact, do not support conifers.