Alashan Desert World Geopark in Inner Mongolia

Alashan Desert World Geopark

synonym

Alxa Desert World Geopark in Inner Mongolia generally refers to Alxa Desert World Geopark

Alashan Desert World Geopark is located in Alashan League, the most western part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The special geographical location, geological structure, ecological environment and climatic conditions of Alashan Desert World Geopark form a geological landscape dominated by desert and Gobi, which comprehensively reflects all kinds of typical geological relics formed by wind geological process in Northwest China. It is China's and also China's It is the only Geopark in the world that systematically and completely displays the process of wind induced geological processes and desert geological relics. With a total area of 630.37 ㎞ m2, it is composed of Badain Jaran Park, Tengger Park and Juyan Park, and its 10 scenic spots.

In December 2017, it was selected into the list of the first batch of national primary and secondary school students' research and practice education bases and camps of the Ministry of education.

geographical environment

Location context

Alashan Desert World Geopark is located in Alashan League, the westernmost part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with a total area of 630.37 square kilometers. It is 831 kilometers long from east to west and 598 kilometers wide from north to south. It is composed of Badain Jaran, Tengger and Juyan parks and their 10 scenic spots.

topographic features

The main types of geological relics in Alxa Desert World Geopark include: desert landscape (Badain Jaran Desert, Tengger Desert), Gobi landscape (Ejina Gobi), canyon landscape (aolunbula Canyon, erribugai Canyon, camel waterfall) and wind erosion landscape (Hesen chulu wind erosion landscape). The study on the genesis and evolution mechanism of the geological relics in the park is not only of great significance for understanding its own mystery, promoting the progress of aeolian sand geomorphology and desert Quaternary geology, but also for understanding regional climate, desert, circulation, water cycle, earth composition and other major environmental problems.

Climatic characteristics

Alxa Desert World Geopark is a middle temperate continental climate, with dry and less rain, hot summer and cold winter, warm day and cool night, strong evaporation and short frost free period. The annual average temperature is 6.8 ℃, the hottest month is July, the highest temperature is 22.6 ~ 26.4 ℃, and the coldest month is January, the average temperature is - 15.7 ~ 9.0 ℃.

Park Scenic Area

Alashan Desert National Geopark is composed of Badain Jaran, Tengger and Juyan parks and their 10 scenic spots.

park

Badan Jilin Park

Badain Jaran park is located in Alashan Right Banner, including Badain Jaran Desert, Mandela rock paintings, hongdunzi gorge and heisenchulu wind erosion landform. It is a sightseeing area with desert canyon, wind erosion landform and long history of rock paintings as the main features, scientific exploration, popular science tourism and natural ecology. Mainly carry out science and education, desert exploration, cultural tourism and other tourism projects.

Tengger Park

Tengger park is located in the main banner of Alxa, including three scenic spots: Tengger Desert, Jilantai Salt Lake and aolunbula gorge. It is a scientific research and leisure resort with desert, salt lake, canyon and religious culture as its main characteristics. Mainly carry out scientific research, tourism, leisure and other entertainment projects.

Juyanhai Park

Juyanhai park is located in Ejina Banner, including four scenic spots: Juyanhai, Heicheng cultural site, Populus euphratica forest and MAZONGSHAN fossil. It is an eco-tourism area with Populus euphratica forest, Juyanhai, ancient city ruins, paleontological fossils and space city as the main landscape resources. Focus on the development of natural eco-tourism, science and education projects, combined with Juyan culture, turhute culture and other tourism development characteristics.

scenic spot

Moon Lake Scenic Spot

With an area of about 3 square kilometers, Moon Lake is a beautiful freshwater lake. It looks like a crescent moon in the East and looks like the territory of China in the West. It is one of the seasonal lakes which were divided by the long-term drought in ancient times. It was not dried up because of the long-term maintenance of underground confined water. The lake water is green, the reeds are smoky, all kinds of fish are flying in the shallow bottom, and rare birds are flying on the lake. It is a resort for holiday tourism.

Aolun Prague scenic spot

Aolunbula gorge is formed by the action of water and wind erosion. Ten canyons are developed in the scenic area, which are generally distributed from west to East. The canyon is winding and winding with steep two walls. The wind erosion niches and various wind erosion landforms are of different shapes, which are lifelike and lifelike. Camel waterfall is a typical area to study the genesis and evolution of Danxia Landform in arid area of China.

Tonghu scenic spot

Tonghu scenic spot is located in the southeast of Tengger Desert in Alxa Left Banner, surrounded by sand dunes on all sides. The inner wetland is rich. The lakeside is covered with green grass, flocks of cattle and sheep, white yurts and colorful camping tents are integrated with strong ethnic customs. The scenery is beautiful and picturesque.

Badain Jaran Desert scenic spot

With a total area of 47100 square kilometers, Badain Jaran Desert is the third largest desert in China and the fourth largest desert in the world. The desert is famous for its five unique features, namely, Qifeng, Mingsha, Xiuhu, Shenquan and ancient temple. The highest sand peak is mount Bilutu, with an altitude of 1609 meters and a relative height of 500 meters. It is the highest peak of Sand Mountain in the world, known as "desert Everest". Badain Jaran Desert is also the largest sand area in the world, known as a "sand kingdom of the world". There are 144 proven lakes in the desert, commonly known as "thousand lakes in the desert". Among the many lakes, Indo Ritu spring is the most magical. There are 108 springs on the reef less than 3 square meters, which is known as "holy spring".

Mount Mandela scenic spot

Mandela mountain rock paintings are located in the eastern edge of Badain Jaran Desert. There are more than 6000 ancient rock paintings of thousands of years ago in Mandela mountain rock paintings, which constitute a group of Mandela mountain rock paintings with high cultural relic value. They provide extremely rich and real data for the study of China's national history, art history, animal husbandry history, astronomical history, religious history, etc.

Erribugai scenic spot

The erribugai gorge is about 5km long and its two walls are maroon red. Its bedrock is Jurassic sandstone and siltstone about 150-180 million years ago. It is mainly formed by water erosion and wind erosion.

Populus euphratica forest scenic spot

E'na Populus euphratica forest is one of the only three original Populus euphratica forests in the world, with an area of 440000 mu, second only to Xinjiang and second in China. The Populus euphratica forest in autumn is the most charming scenery in Ejina. Populus euphratica, also known as Wutong tree, is the oldest poplar species in the world, and is known as "living fossil tree". Populus euphratica is a deciduous tree, which grows near the water source. It is resistant to salt and alkali, grows fast, and has strong vitality. It has the saying of "living but not dying for a thousand years, dying but not falling for a thousand years, falling but immortal for a thousand years". It is a symbol of the strong and unyielding spirit of the Chinese nation.

Juyan seascape

Juyan sea scenic area is located 38km north of dalaihubu Town, Ejina Banner, with a water area of 35.4 square meters. The scenic area includes the vast Juyanhai, the boundless desert and Gobi, and the transition zone between Gobi and desert. With its unique landscape, people are attracted to look for miracles in the desert and are eager to experience the feeling of "another village with dark willows and bright flowers".

Heicheng scenic spot

Heicheng scenic spot is located in the southeast of Ejina Banner, about 25km away from dalaihubu Town, including Heicheng, queshulin, Hongcheng, Lvcheng, Datong City and Jiaqu Houguan ruins. It shows the human history of Ejina in different periods to the world. Walking into the Heicheng remains scenic spot will slowly uncover the mystery of ancient Ejina.

Heisenchulu Scenic Area

"Heisenchulu" is Mongolian, which means "mountain stone like a pot". In the area of tens of square kilometers, there are many strange stones in different shapes. The parent rock of wind erosion in the scenic area is Jurassic granite about 150-180 million years ago. Due to the difference of lithology and mineral composition, and long-term weathering, various wind erosion landforms have been formed. Heisenchulu is one of the most developed areas of granite wind erosion landform in Western China. It is a natural museum to study the formation and evolution of wind erosion landform.

Development and construction

On November 28, 2004, Alxa Desert Geopark was promoted to autonomous regional Geopark,

On September 19, 2005, Alxa Desert Geopark was promoted to National Geopark,

On September 19, 2007, Alashan Desert National Geopark was successfully opened,

On August 22, 2009, Alxa Desert National Geopark was rated as the World Geopark.

Traffic routes

There are 217, 312, 218 provincial roads in Alxa Desert World Geopark, which are connected with National Highway 110, with BAYANHOT as the center, trunk roads as the backbone, flag lines and border defense lines as branch lines, supplemented by township and special roads crisscross and extending in all directions. It is 110 km from BAYANHOT town to Yinchuan railway station, 130 km from wuhaixi railway station, 125 km from Ayouqi to Jinchang railway station and 410 km from Ejinaqi to Jiuquan railway station.

Address: Alxa

Longitude: 105.680567

Latitude: 38.836031

Chinese PinYin : Nei Meng Gu A La Shan Sha Mo Shi Jie Di Zhi Gong Yuan