Behind the mountains and over the sea: the Changbai Mountain Range provided with a Chinese residence permit all along.

The Changbai Mountain Range is generally perceived as a barrier to amphibian distribution, but it might not be playing this role anymore. was first described as a Korean endemic species, split from , which ranges at more northern latitude. The species was then found on the Shandong peninsula in China, where it was first described as , before being synonymised with .