Xiqiao Mountain

There are 72 peaks in Xiqiao Mountain scenic spot. The main peak is the weighbridge peak, which is 346 meters above sea level. It has beautiful natural scenery and profound cultural heritage. It has the reputation of "beacon of Pearl River civilization" and "famous mountain of Neo Confucianism in southern Guangdong". Now Xiqiao Mountain is divided into 10 scenic spots, which are up and down the mountain, Yunhai liantai (Nanhai Guanyin culture garden), Huangdaxian Shengjing garden, huangfeihong lion Martial Arts Museum, Baiyun cave, Tianhu Park, Biyu cave, Cuiyan, shiyanyan, jiulongyan, Sifang bamboo garden, etc.

Xiqiao Mountain

Xiqiao Mountain scenic spot is one of the four famous mountains in Guangdong Province. It enjoys national AAAAA scenic spot, China National Forest Park, China National Geopark, national key scenic spot and "beacon of Pearl River civilization"

And so on. Xiqiao Mountain is located in the southwest of Nanhai District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China. Xiqiao Mountain is an extinct volcano with a history of 40-50 million years. It is the earliest stone manufacturing site in prehistoric period of South China, forming a unique "Xiqiao Mountain Culture" and initiating the Pearl River civilization. They are listed as two major stone tools manufacturing sites in the north and south of Neolithic Age in China.

geographical environment

Position mirror domain

Xiqiao Mountain is located in the southwest of Nanhai District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, with latitude of 22 ° 55 ′ to 22 ° 57 ′ N and longitude of 112 ° 56 ′ to 113 ° 0 ′ E. Xiqiao Mountain is located in Xiqiao Town, Nanhai District, Foshan City, and between Shunde District, Gaoming District and Jiangmen City. It is only 45 km away from Guangzhou City in the north and 27 km away from Foshan City. It stands out on the western plain of the Pearl River Delta, adjacent to the trunk road of the lower reaches of the Beijiang River in the East and the trunk road of the lower reaches of the Xijiang River in the West.

Climatic characteristics

Xiqiao Mountain is a subtropical monsoon climate zone, warm in winter and cool in summer, mild in four seasons, abundant in water and heat, and abundant in rainfall. The average annual temperature is 21.8 ℃, the average temperature in the coldest month is 13 ℃, the average temperature in the hottest month is 28.8 ℃, and the average annual rainfall is more than 1600 mm. The rainfall is mainly concentrated from April to September, accounting for about 80% of the annual rainfall. Rainy in spring and summer, dry in autumn and winter, the climate is conducive to the formation and growth of subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest.

Overview of mountain

Xiqiao Mountain, 346 meters above sea level, is an ancient volcano. It is steep outside and flat inside. It looks like lotus petals. It has a diameter of 4 kilometers, a circumference of 13 kilometers, and an area of 14 square kilometers. It has 72 peaks, with Dake peak (344 meters above sea level) as the highest peak. The peaks are arranged in an orderly order. Jiulongyan, dongmushi, shiyanyan and other peaks are in various shapes. The biggest feature of Xiqiao Mountain is that "there are lakes in the mountains and mountains in the lakes." There are 16 caves, 232 springs and 28 waterfalls in the whole mountain. There are three "sky lakes" on the top of the mountain. There are many kinds of animals and plants. The climate is pleasant and the scenery is beautiful. It is a good place to watch the sea of clouds, the sunrise and the summer vacation. It is also a good place for geological investigation.

Geological characteristics

Geological formation

Xiqiao Mountain is a volcanic rock cone formed in Eocene of Paleogene. The volcanic activity in Sanshui Basin began in the late Yanshanian movement, and gradually strengthened from the middle Paleogene 40 million years ago, with the strongest in the late Eocene. Xiqiao Mountain experienced the eruption and eruption of Huanxin formation, Baoyue formation and Huayong period, and finally formed the mountain body mainly composed of trachyte and basalt lava.

After the formation of Xiqiaoshan volcanic rock mass, it suffered from long-term rain, sunlight, weathering and denudation, especially the joint fissure development of Xiqiaoshan volcanic rock mass, which formed many groups of "meter" shaped faults and joints, which were cut by later faults and formed scarps. There are many gaps in volcanic rocks and developed joints and fissures, which form water storage space and contain abundant groundwater. Abundant precipitation provides sufficient water source. Through years of water erosion and undercutting along the joint fissure surface, suitable terrain with large drop, and rock collapse along the steep fault surface, the beautiful landforms of strange Valley, strange stone, waterfall and spring in Xiqiao Mountain are finally formed.

Geological Composition

（1） Complete trachyte volcanic facies, lithology and volcanic institutions are developed

Xiqiaoshan volcanic edifice is an important part of volcanic activity in Sanshui Basin. According to isotopic data, the volcanic edifice was formed in Eocene of early Paleogene. Geomorphologically, it is a nearly equiaxed conical mountain body extending slightly to the northeast. Its diameter is about 4-5km and covers an area of 11.76km. At the top of the cone, the terrain is relatively gentle, and it is composed of many undulating small peaks. The main peak is Dake peak, with an altitude of 344.4m. The edge of the mountain is straight and steep, generally more than 200m high, and the slope angle is often more than 30-40 degrees. From the center to the outside, radial water system and gullies develop.

The eruption center of the volcanic edifice is located in the area from dakefeng to shiyanyan to the south of the whole volcanic edifice center. The crater may be located between jiulongyan and shidonggu and occupied by volcanic agglomerates. The eruptive center consists of a large number of eruptive facies and eruptive sedimentary facies. The former is the main one, while the latter is mainly found in the east zone of jingliangting shiyanyan shiancestral hall shidonggu. The main rock types are trachyte volcanic agglomerate, agglomerate breccia, breccia, breccia tuff, trachyte tuff, sedimentary breccia tuff, sedimentary tuff and trachyte complex conglomerate with sedimentary characteristics. Because of the above-mentioned rocks, the volcanic neck facies rocks have not been exposed. From the center to the outside, they are trachyte lava (trachyte and quartz trachyte), trachyte pyroclastic rock, pyroclastic sedimentary rock and trachyte subvolcanic rock. They are divided into effusive, explosive, eruptive sedimentary and subvolcanic facies. The rocks of different lithofacies are generally distributed around the eruption center in the shape of half ring or crescent.

In the late stage of volcanic activity, the main form of volcanic activity changed from eruption and eruption to eruption and latent volcano due to the weakening of pressure in magma chamber. The present Tianhu is an obvious crater formed in the late stage. The lithology around the crater is mainly trachytic lava, followed by volcanic agglomerate and volcanic breccia. In geomorphology, it is a depression with negative topography, which is filled by water body and becomes Tianhu lake.

（2） Peculiar ancient volcanic landform

After the formation of volcanic rocks in Xiqiao Mountain, through the late tectonic geological process and weathering erosion, various peculiar deep caves, feixie silver waterfall and other natural geological landscapes were formed. For example, biyudong, Cuiyan and baiyuntang are all volcanic rocks cut by late fault structures and formed by long-term weathering and denudation. The steep fault surface, along with the development of many groups of joints, causes the rock to collapse and form a cliff. The lake water, spring water and other water bodies on the mountain pour down along the cliff, forming spectacular waterfalls of large and small. The famous waterfalls are "feiliuqianchi waterfall" and "yuyanzhu waterfall". The large-scale ne joints formed the extraordinary "Yupingfeng" and "Yellow River in the sky", while the later spherical weathering and erosion formed many strange rocks such as "mushroom stone", "core washing stone" and "mainstay stone".

The landform of trachyte in Xiqiao Mountain is characterized by stomatal structure, developed joints, crisscross primary joints and epigenetic fissures. Weathering and erosion move deeply along the rock joints and expand and increase the fissures in the rock. Therefore, the mountain is easy to absorb and store water. Xiqiao Mountain has a warm and humid climate in south subtropics with abundant rainfall. Therefore, diving is very rich. Therefore, springs, waterfalls, lakes and wells developed in Xiqiao Mountain. As far as springs are concerned, there are 32 main springs and 200 large and small springs in the mountains. Well known such as the above "no leaf well" and crab eye spring in Cuiyan District, Shuangyu spring in Shipai village, etc.

Geological evaluation

According to the characteristics of lithology, lithofacies and volcanic distribution, the volcanic activity in Xiqiao Mountain has a process of multiple times from eruption to waterfall, during which there are several short interruptions. In general, it is a volcanic institution with central eruption, parasitic volcano and crater collapse. Xiqiao Mountain is a paleovolcanic institution formed by Cenozoic volcanic eruption, which was formed in Sanshui Basin. It is of great significance to study Cenozoic volcanic activity, geological structure history and mineralization of South China block.

Xiqiao Mountain is the first place where ancient human activities in volcanic rocks were discovered. Ancient human activities not only left strange caves, shipingfeng and other geological landscape, but also retained a variety of human culture, which was praised as "the beacon of Pearl River civilization" by archaeologists. Xiqiao Mountain is the largest manufacturing workshop in the stone age in South China. "Mountain culture" has made a great contribution to the development of Chinese civilization, and has been praised as "the beacon of Pearl River civilization" by archaeologists. As early as 6000 years ago, hardworking and intelligent Xiqiao Mountain people created a splendid "double shoulder stone" culture on this land.

The fertile weathering products of trachyte volcanic rocks (rich in potassium, sodium, phosphorus, rare earth, etc.) in Xiqiao Mountain are ideal places for the study of ecological geology and geochemistry. The rare large silver deposit related to trachyte volcanic rocks is a model for the study of Cenozoic Himalayan volcanic mineralization.

Resource overview

plant resources

In the range of Xiqiao Mountain, there are more than 800 kinds of plants, including about 400 kinds of trees and shrubs. There are 16 families of pteridophytes, 8 families of gymnosperms and 127 families of angiosperms.

The ancient and famous trees in Xiqiao Mountain were investigated twice by Nanhai Forestry Bureau in 1992 and by Guangdong forestry survey and Design Institute in 2000 respectively. The park is rich in ancient and famous trees resources, which are suitable for tourists

Chinese PinYin : Xi Qiao Shan