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Of the world's 28 geoparks approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Friday (Feb 13th) in Paris, one is Danxia Mount located in Shaoguan, Guangdong.
Geoparks, which is short for geological parks, are an international program created by UNESCO to refer to territories that have unique geological landforms and are typical of certain geological evolutionary history.
There are a total of 28 sites in the world on the first UNESCO list of the World Network of Geoparks. The other seven Chinese geoparks on the list are: Lushan Geopark, Jiangxi Province; Shilin Geopark,Yunnan; Yuntaishan Geopark, Henan; Songshan Geopark, Henan; Huangshan Geopark, Anhui; Wudalianchi Geopark, Heilongjiang; Zhangjiajie Geopark, Hunan.
Zheng Tongyang, director of the tourism bureau of Guangdong where Danxiashan Geopark is located, said the accreditation of Danxiashan as a geopark by UNESCO will benefit, in terms of tourism, not only the park itself, but the province as a whole.
Local authorities in charge of other listed parks expect the listing will bring about a tourism boom and an increasing number of visitors from home and abroad.
Since 1999, thanks to the support from UNESCO, the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources officially launched the geopark program in China. The Geological Society of China played an active role in the geopark work, setting up national geopark standards, an evaluation system and criteria of construction and management.
China to date has established 44 national geoparks.
The guidelines on the world network of geoparks supported by UNESCO hammered out by the advisory and expert group on geoparks were published in May 2002. The national leading group of geoparks in China followed the guidelines and selected the eight candidate parks for the UNESCO program to be listed on the World Network of Geoparks.
All the eight geoparks satisfy the criteria mentioned in guidelines, such as geoscientific value, popularization of geosciences, protection of geoheritages and restoration of geoenvironment social communication and education, job opportunity and local sustainable development.
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Danxia Geological Park in south China's Guangdong Province |
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Huangshan Mountain Geological Park in east China's Anhui Province |
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Mount Yuntaishan Geological Park in central China's Henan Province |
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Mount Songshan Geological Park in central China's Henan Province |
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Wudalianchi Geological Park in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. |
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Zhangjiajie Geological Park in south China's Hunan Province. |
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Lushan Mountain Geological Park in east China's Jiangxi Province |
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Forest of Stone Geological Park in southwest China's Yunnan Province. |
Editor: Wing
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