Mount Danxia

Mount Danxia

Danxia Mountain (China Red Stone Park), located in Renhua county, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, is between 113 ° 36 ′ 25 ″ e to 113 ° 47 ′ 53 ″ and 24 ° 51 ′ 48 ″ n to 25 ° 04 ′ 12 ″.

With a total area of 292 square kilometers, it is the largest scenic spot in Guangdong Province, a scenic spot dominated by Danxia landform and a world natural heritage site.

Danxia Mountain is the world's "Danxia landform" named. It is composed of more than 680 red gravel rocks with flat top, steep body and gentle foot, "the color is like wodan, the brilliance is like Mingxia", and it is characterized by red cliff in Chibi. According to the research of geologists, more than 1200 Danxia landforms have been found in the world. Among them, Danxia landforms are the most typical, the most complete and the most abundant.

From 140 million to 70 million years ago, Danxia Mountain area was a large inland basin. Affected by Himalayan orogeny, the surrounding mountains were strongly uplifted, and a large amount of clastic deposits were received in the basin, forming a huge thick red stratum. Around 7000 years ago, the crust rose and gradually eroded. Since 6 million years ago, the basin has experienced several intermittent rises, with an average rise of about 1 meter per 10000 years. At the same time, the Danxia red bed has been cut into a red mountain group, namely Danxia Mountain scenic spot.

There are more than 680 large and small stone peaks, stone walls, stone pillars and Tianshengqiao in Danxia Mountain; Danxia Mountain has the most detailed and in-depth research on stratum, structure, landform performance, development process, Yingli function, natural environment and ecological evolution in Danxia landform area of China, and has become the research base of Danxia Landform in China and even in the world, as well as the base of popular science education and teaching practice.

Since its development in 1988, Danxia Mountain has been listed and rated as national scenic spot, National Nature Reserve, National Geopark, national AAAA tourist attraction and national AAAAA tourist attraction. It was approved as the first batch of world geoparks by UNESCO on February 13, 2004 and listed in the world heritage list in 2010.

geographical environment

Location context

Danxia Mountain (China Red Stone Park), located in Renhua county, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, is between 113 ° 36 ′ 25 ″ e to 113 ° 47 ′ 53 ″ and 24 ° 51 ′ 48 ″ n to 25 ° 04 ′ 12 ″.

Jinjiang River passes through the territory from north to south. The scenic area is composed of 2.5 square kilometers of the main peak and the surrounding landscape. It starts from Senmao peak in the East, reaches tunjun village in the south, reaches the viewing Pavilion in the west, and reaches Liangsan stone in the north, with a total area of 292 square kilometers and an open tour area of 12 square kilometers.

topographic features

Danxia landform belongs to red bed landform, which is a kind of horizontal tectonic landform. It refers to the isolated peaks and steep rocks formed by long-term weathering, stripping and water erosion of red sandstone. It is the general name of various Danxia peaks developed along vertical joints in thick red sand and conglomerate. It is mainly developed in the horizontal or gently dipping red strata from Jurassic to tertiary. The Danxia Mountain in northern Guangdong is the most typical landform, so it is called Danxia landform.

The material basis of Danxia Landform in Danxia Mountain World Geopark is the Red River lacustrine glutenite formed in the late Cretaceous period about 70-90 million years ago. About 65 million years ago, the area where the Geopark is located was affected by the tectonic movement of the earth, resulting in many faults and joints, and at the same time, the whole Danxia basin became a denuded area. The Himalayan movement, which began about 23 million years ago, caused the rapid uplift of the area. In the long years, the intermittent uplifting makes the geomorphology of this area have undergone earth shaking changes. Under the joint action of the earth's internal and external forces, the Danxia Mountain area has been shaped into 680 hills and rocks, with various images.

Climate conditions

Danxia Mountain is located in the south slope of Nanling Mountain range, which belongs to the southern edge of subtropical zone. It has the characteristics of subtropical monsoon humid climate from middle subtropical zone to south subtropical zone.

The annual average temperature of Danxia Mountain is 19.7 ℃, the extreme minimum temperature is - 5.4 ℃, the extreme maximum temperature is 40.9 ℃, and the maximum monthly average daily range is 18.8 ℃. The average temperature in July is 28.3 ℃ in the hottest month and 9.5 ℃ in January in the coldest month. The mean maximum temperature and mean minimum temperature are higher in autumn than in spring.

The annual average sunshine duration of Danxia Mountain is 1721 hours, the solar radiation is 107.2 kcal / cm2, and the daily average sunshine duration is 4.7 hours. It is more from July to September and less from February to April.

The average daily precipitation of Danxia Mountain is 1715 mm, with 172 days of precipitation. The precipitation from March to August accounts for about 75% of the annual precipitation, with April to June being the most concentrated, accounting for about 48% of the annual precipitation.

geological structure

tectonic setting

Danxia Mountain is a large inland basin from 140 million to 70 million years ago. Affected by the Himalayan orogeny, the surrounding mountains are strongly uplifted, and a large number of clastic deposits are received in the basin, forming a huge thick red stratum. Around 70 million years ago, the crust rose and gradually eroded. Since 6 million years ago, the basin has experienced many times of intermittent rise, with an average rise of about 1 meter per 10000 years. At the same time, the Danxia red layer has been cut into a red mountain group, that is, the Danxia Mountain area.

Developmental pattern

Danxia Mountain is developed in the structural basin in the center of Nanling fold belt, with the diversity of individual types and the rarity of geomorphic landscape. It is the naming place of Danxia Landform in China, the model place of main types and basic characteristics, and the representative of cluster peak cluster forest type Danxia Mountain developed in the middle and late middle of life. In the series of nominations, the tropical species are the most, and the valley rainforest is the most prominent; it is the model area for the study of Danxia biological lineage, Danxia "island effect" and "heat island effect".

There are more than 680 large and small stone peaks, stone walls, stone pillars and Tianshengqiao in Danxia Mountain; Danxia Mountain has the most detailed and in-depth research on stratum, structure, landform performance, development process, Yingli function, natural environment and ecological evolution in Danxia landform area of China, and has become the research base of Danxia Landform in China and even in the world, as well as the base of popular science education and teaching practice.

natural resources

plant resources

There are 1916 species, 891 genera and 216 families in Danxia Mountain. Wutong, China, China has 1706 species of flora, belonging to 206 families and 778 genera, 23 species of rare and endangered species of Mount Danxia, 5 species of red list of IUCN, 16 species of red list of Chinese species, 13 species of wild plants in key protected species in China, 347 species of 204 species belonging to 97 families and 204 species in Mount Danxia, among which, Danxia Indus, Danxia Southern candle and Danxia little flower are among the most endemic species of Mount Danxia. Moss is the most prominent and representative. Among the 13 species recorded in the list of national key protected wild plants (1999), leek (Allium wallichii) belongs to grade I key protection.

Animal resources

In terms of animal resources, good ecological environment of wild animals is preserved. There are 88 species of mammals, 288 species of birds, 86 species of reptiles, 37 species (or subspecies) of amphibians, 100 species or subspecies of fish and 1023 species of insects in Danxia Mountain. There are 59 species listed in China's red list of species, 73 species listed in IUCN's red list, 66 species listed in cites, and 54 species of national key protected animals in China, including 7 species under class I protection and 47 species under class II protection. There are 75 kinds of national key protected wild animals, including 9 kinds of first-class protected animals and 66 kinds of second-class protected animals.

Relic resources

In the southwest of Danxia basin, there are also famous remains of MABA human skulls, which are important clues for the study of early Homo sapiens. At the same time, Shixia cultural site in shiziyan is the remains of ancient human culture in the late Neolithic period 6000 years ago.

Human history

In the year of Chongning (1102-1106) of Huizong in the Northern Song Dynasty, Fayun residents traveled to the Danxia Mengjue pass, where they saw the wonderful scenery of the cave and the rocks were "as bright as bright clouds" and awakened. They sighed that "half of their lives have been in a dream, and today they begin to feel pure and empty." so they wrote the title of "Mengjue pass" and built 18 nunneries here to worship Guanyin Bodhisattva.

At the end of Chongzhen period (1644), Li Yongmao, governor of Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, attempted to resist the Qing Dynasty. He lived in seclusion with his family in the "elder village" of Danxia Mountain. He built houses, opened fields and invited friends to gather. His brother Li chongmao later gave the mountain to the temple.

In 1662, the first year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, the Buddhist master of Haichuang temple in Guangzhou came to Danxia Mountain to open a Taoist temple and build biechuan temple. The main hall, Maitreya hall, Guanyin Pavilion, sutra Pavilion, abbot building, Zen room, guest hall, etc. were successively built to build a large-scale Banshan temple. The name of the temple is "biezhuan" in the Buddhist Zen doctrine of "no writing, no biography outside the religion, pointing directly to the heart and becoming Buddha by seeing nature".

In 1683, Gu Jian, another monk of Haichuang temple in Guangzhou, built an nunnery in Banzhai and Hongyan of Danxia Mountain, which was built in the 50th year of Kangxi

Chinese PinYin : Dan Xia Shan