From July 31 to August 4 in 2015, Sanqingshan UGGp conducted a study tour to Zhangjiajie UGGp, focusing on exchanging and learning from its experience in preparation for the re-evaluation inspection.
Zhangjiajie UGGp is located in the northwest of Hunan Province, belonging to the transition zone between the northeastern of Yunnan Guizhou Plateau in Southwest China and middle and low mountain area in the northwestern Hunan. It covers an area of 398 square kilometers and harbors diversified geosites including sandstone peak forest, Fangshantai Village, overpass and stone gate, valley and gully, karst gorge, karst caves, springs and waterfalls, lakes and streams, sedimentation, structure, stratigraphic section, fossils, etc.
There are more than 3000 stony cliffs erecting in the geopark, of which more than 1000 are over 200 meters. The height of the Golden Whip Rock is up to 350 m. With its pinnacles in various shapes which are spectacularly beautiful, it is a very rare sandstone peak forest landform in the world with great scientific value.
The formation of the Zhangjiajie sandstone peak forest landscape is the result of long-term geological processes since the Late Tertiary period: slow and intermittent crustal uplift, combined with prolonged erosion and incision by running water. When incision reaches a certain depth, it forms a peak forest landscape composed of numerous towering and steep peak pillars.
The earth structure of Zhangjiajie is a stable land block, mainly about the up and down movement, and the fold movement is not strong. Such solid crust foundation is the true reason why thousands of quartz sandstone peak forests in the Wulingyuan Area have never collapsed for thousands of millions of years.
