“Taining offers a wealth of geological and cultural sites to visitors”
Celebrating Earth Heritage
Taining UNESCO Global Geopark is located in Taining County, the northwest part of Fujian Province. Taining UNESCO Global Geopark is situated in the southeast side of the mid-Wuyi Mountains. The mountain, hill and basin landforms can be seen in the park with a high northwest part, a low central part and a gentle southeast part. The highest Peak in this area is the Baishiding with an altitude of 1,858 meters, which is also one of the highest granitic peaks in southeastern China. The mountains composed mainly of volcanic rock are generally very steep with medium height. While the Danxia landform is seen in low mountain and hilly areas with complex terrain. The Shaxian Formation is exposed in the marginal areas of the red basin and has a low-even/gentle hilly landform. Metamorphic rocks have a similar landform to the former.
Taining UNESCO Global Geopark has been developed on the geological background of the Wuyi mountain range uplift on the Cathaysis, a Precambrian block of southern China. It has been in the active tectonic margin of the West Pacific Shelf since the late Triassic period (200 million years ago). The sedimentary, volcanic, intrusion and metamorphic rocks all outcrop in the UNESCO Global Geopark. The coal-bearing basin, oil-bearing basin, double-peak volcanic basin and red-bed basin overlay each other. Volcanic eruption and magma intrusion have happened several times. There are numerous geological heritages in the UNESCO Global Geopark and the dominant ones are the Danxia landform which originates from the Cretaceous red beds, granite-egg landform and structural geological landforms characterized by the large Shaowu-Heyuan Fault.
The Geopark’s impressive geology is complimented by a similarly well preserved ecology.
Sustaining local Communities
The local college teachers and students come to Taining UNESCO Global Geopark for practice and investigation in the summer holiday every year. In order to educate teenagers, summer camp activity is held every year. In order to update and promote the knowledge and qualification of rangers and tour guides, Taining UNESCO Global Geopark applies a ranger training model named “1 + N”, which means one-time pre-service training plus many times of on-the-job training.
Taining UNESCO Global Geopark has carried out the work of fruitful publicity and marketing. The rapid development of the tourism economy has laid a solid material foundation for the effective protection of geological relics. We have defined the protected areas and protected objects, carried out environmental remediation of important geological relic landscapes and implemented the “blue sky, clear water, cleaning” three environmental management projects. Geological heritage protection work has made a significant achievement. In addition to the geological wonders, there are a number of wonderful man-made features in the area that attract visitors. The combination of these geological and man-made features makes the area a popular geopark.
