On September 19th, with the theme of "UNESCO Global Geoparks Promoting Sustainable Development of Local Economy", the 5th Asia Pacific Global Geoparks Conference 2017 kicked off in Zhijin County, Guizhou Province, with over 900 representatives from 27 countries attending. Representatives from organizations such as UNESCO, the World Geoparks Network, the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council, and the Asia Pacific Geoparks Network attended the conference. The Mount Sanqing World Geopark was led by Deputy Director Ye Wuqing and a delegation of four people attended the meeting. Deputy Director Zhao Wenjing made the theme report "Community Participation: Strengthening the Sustainable Development of Social Economy of Mount Sanqing World Geopark", participated in the international Geopark exhibition, and recommended Mount Sanqing to the representatives of the World Geopark, experts and scholars, and local people; At the same time, we utilized the conference platform to have in-depth communication and exchanges with representatives from sister parks and other parks.

The conference will last for 5 days and will discuss and exchange topics such as strengthening local social and economic sustainable development, public education on popular science knowledge, promoting the construction of candidate world geoparks, karst landscape world geopark networks, and strengthening regional cooperation to promote the development of UNESCO world geoparks in the Asia Pacific region through 5 thematic reports and 6 thematic reports. During the conference, the attending representatives conducted a field investigation of the Zhijin Cave Global Geopark.
It is reported that at the Asia Pacific Geopark Network Coordinator Meeting held before the conference, Dr. He Qingcheng, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Executive Director of the National Geopark Network Center, and Director of the World Geopark Network Office, was elected as the overall coordinator of the Asia Pacific Geopark Network. This is the first time that a Chinese person has been elected as the head of the Asia Pacific Geopark Network.