Hukou Waterfall National Geopark of the Yellow River

Hukou Waterfall National Geopark of the Yellow River takes Hukou Waterfall as the center and is built along the East and west sides of the Yellow River. Hukou Waterfall National Geopark of the Yellow River (Shanxi) is composed of Hukou Waterfall Scenic Spot, Kenanpo scenic spot, Zhongshi scenic spot and xiaozhouwo scenic spot. It is a comprehensive Geopark with high popular science, tourism, ornamental value and cultural heritage, with river landform as the main feature and cultural relics as a whole.

Hukou Waterfall National Geopark of the Yellow River

Hukou waterfall is a famous waterfall on the Yellow River in China. Its surging momentum is a symbol of the spirit of the Chinese nation. Hukou Waterfall Geopark of the Yellow River takes the Yellow River as the axis and crosses Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. It is a scenic spot shared by the two provinces. East of the river is Luliang Mountain, and west of the river is Huanglong Mountain. It is adjacent to Hukou Town, Ji County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province in the East and Hukou Township, Yichuan County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province in the West. From Taiyuan about 5, 6 hours by car; from Xi'an about 2 hours by car. At this point, the Yellow River has steep cliffs on both sides and narrow estuaries, so it is called Hukou waterfall. The fall of the waterfall is 9 meters, which is rich in water resources. Hukou waterfall is the second largest waterfall in China and the largest yellow waterfall in the world.

About the park

The boundary between the East and west of Hukou Waterfall National Geopark on the Yellow River extends about 1.5 km from the center line of the river to both sides. Its main geological relic is the majestic Hukou waterfall.

Hukou waterfall is the largest waterfall on the Yellow River. It is flying straight down, huge waves surging, breathtaking mountains and rivers, the sound of the waves shaking the sky, on both sides of the cliff, the world's wonders. The water surface of the Yellow River in the upper reaches of the waterfall is 300 meters wide. Within a distance of less than 500 meters, it is compressed to a width of 20-30 meters. 1000 m3 / s of river water poured down from the steep cliff more than 20 meters high, resulting in the spirit of "a pot of harvest of the Yellow River for thousands of miles". The waterfalls, like mountains and rivers, impact the rocks and emit the roar of "thunder in valley streams"; the huge waves stir up waves tens of meters high, which can be seen as the landscape of "smoke in the water" far away, and lead to the beautiful scenery of "rainbow all over the sky" under the sun. At the bottom left of the waterfall, there is water eroding out of the underground Stone Gallery. You can look up at the magnificent scenery of "the water of the Yellow River comes up from the sky".

Azimuth range

Hukou Waterfall National Geopark of the Yellow River is located in the main scenic area of Hukou waterfall at the southern end of qinjin gorge. The specific geographical coordinates are as follows: N36 ° 4'12 "- 36 ° 9'37" n, E110 ° 21'53 "- 110 ° 23'53" E, South to Chuankou County, north to Longwang County, east-west 1.5km with the Yellow River as the axis, with a total area of 30km2 and main geological relics area of 10km2.

Landscape value

1. The typicality of Hukou Waterfall Geological Relics: its unique erosive and latent yellow waterfall is rare in the world. The park has complete types of geological relics, clear relics and large scale, which has strong typicality, scientificity, ornamental and international comparative significance.

2. Rarity: Hukou waterfall is a special geological relic in the world. The relic of the valley in the narrow valley has a very special origin, which is rare at home and abroad.

3. Naturalness: the geological relics in the park are well preserved, basically in a natural state, and rarely damaged by human activities.

4. Systematicness and integrity:

All kinds of geological relics in the park are colorful and well preserved, which systematically and completely reflect the whole process of the growth and evolution of Hukou waterfall on the Yellow River.

5. Beauty: the shape, sound, color and light of Hukou geological relics give people a strong sense of beauty and have high aesthetic value.

6. Area suitability: the planning area of the Geopark is 301cm2, and the area of the reserve is 10km2, which is enough to effectively protect the geological relics in the reserve, and the protection and utilization are interdependent, which is conducive to the reasonable development and utilization of the park.

7. Scientific value: Hukou leaf relics have high scientific value and ornamental value in Geosciences and ecology, and have great potential for utilization. It can establish Hukou scientific research center and Geological Museum, which has important scientific theoretical value for the study of the development history of the Yellow River, the formation and evolution of loess, and can also become a field fortress for teenagers to carry out geological science education.

8. Economic and social value: through the utilization of geological heritage resources, the development of tourism industry, and the education of young people, great economic and social benefits can be produced.

Geological relics

1. Waterfall: there is one main waterfall, namely Hukou waterfall and two side waterfalls, which are particularly spectacular in the wet season. There are 32 waterfalls in the tributaries of the river, and some of them even form as many as 8 levels, with a drop of 2-4 meters. 2. Vortex Cave: it is widely distributed. There are more than 30 eroded and residual groups in the scenic area, and the elevation ranges from 450m to 500m.

3. Erosion grooves (erosion lineation) are wavy grooves formed by erosion of riverbed bedrock by torrent. Most of them exist in waterfall developed section, and there are 7 well preserved ones.

4. Hexin Island: under the action of water flow, the hard rock blocks are dismembered along the joint surface and distributed in island shape. There are two obvious places, namely mengmen mountain and Lidui mountain.

5. Erosion platform: distributed on both sides of the canyon, the West Bank is narrow, and the east bank is broad and flat.

6. Valley in Valley: also known as the Dragon trough, about 5 kilometers long, North waterfall, South to mengmen mountain.

7. Lateral erosion Cave: there are about 5 irregular caves with grooves on both sides of the channel wall.

8. Suspended valleys: in some tributary valleys on both sides of the Yellow River, there are 33 valleys suspended on the rock wall due to the cross cutting of joints or fault planes.

9. Joint group: joint group is widely developed and distributed in groups, with more than 20 typical joints.

10. Animal and plant fossil remains: scattered in many places, concentrated in a contiguous fossil group of paleontological two toed animals.

Geological origin

The shililongcao is the result of erosion and cutting by waterfall. It is 4200m in length, 30-50m in width and 15-20m in height of Mesozoic Sandstone on both sides. It is the narrowest part of the Yellow River. Under the restriction of the river, the river is surging and roaring, and the turbid waves are rolling and whirling with great momentum. On the bedrock above and below the waterfall, water erosion troughs and round pits with gravel carried by large and small water can be seen everywhere. This is the famous "treasure mirror of stone nest": the strong river side cutting effect cuts the original shore mountain into the island in the middle of the river, mengdao above and Huludao below. The scene of "mengmen night moon" is the night of full moon. Look at the night scene of "the moon shines and the waves float" in the sky.

The formation of Hukou waterfall is related to the local strata, structure, climate, hydrology and other physical and geographical factors. The bedrock outcropped in Hukou area is mainly Triassic Zhifang formation (Group) (about 200 million years ago). The upper part is interbedded with purplish red, purplish gray and grayish green fine sandstone and argillaceous rock, and the lower part is thick sandstone, thin sandstone and mudstone. The shale is relatively developed, so the soft and hard rock layers in the valley alternate, which intensifies the erosion of water.

The formation of Hukou waterfall is mainly due to two groups of joints formed by Indosinian movement (about 230 million years ago). One group is basically developed along the river (NNE, strike 15 °); the other group is developed across the river (nee, 70-80 ° strike). In addition, along these two sets of joints, some faults have appeared in the incubation section, formation section and extinction section of the waterfall. In Hukou and south of mengmen mountain, the dip angle of the strata is very small, the joints are developed, the faults are occasionally seen, and the strata are quite horizontal. Therefore, it is easy to be broken by tectonic action. Therefore, the formation of Hukou waterfall is caused by the development of joint faults and the strong cutting and erosion of river water.

Address: Yichuan County, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province

Longitude: 110.45484491535

Latitude: 36.113523657911

Tel: 0911-4838030

Tour time: 2 hours

Ticket information: Hukou waterfall: 91 yuan

Opening hours: April to October: 6:30-19:30; other months: 8:00-17:00

Chinese PinYin : Huang He Hu Kou Bao Bu Guo Jia Di Zhi Gong Yuan