Lushan Geopark

Lushan Geopark, covering an area of 500km² and with geological landscapes and geological sections as its main types of geological heritages, is located in Jiangxi Province, Eastern China.

Within the geopark develop horst fault-block mountains, Quaternary glacial heritages and stratigraphic sections of Quaternary glaciers and Lower Proterozoic Xingzi Group. A total of more than 100 important glacial geological heritages have been discovered so far in Lushan Mountain, which completely record the whole process from niveal accumulation, formation of glacier, glacial motion, erosion of rock body, transportation of rock to sedimentation of clay boulder, proving the historic record of paleoclimatic change and geological characteristics in Eastern China. Having many similarities with the characteristics of those Quaternary glacial motions in European Alpine and North American areas, this record is of global correlation significance and has very high scientific value for the research on the history of global paleoclimatic change and geological evolution.

Extantion structures together with the fault-block mountain and metamorphic nucleated complex structures form another characteristic of Lushan Mountain geoscientific landscape. Under the influence of Neotectonism, Lushan Mountain stands erect all alone, where large structures are majestic and magnificent, while the small ones are in different poses and expressions. The matermophic nucleated complex structure in Lushan Mountain is very eminent and comparable to the standard matermophic nucleated complex in the world. The 2,500-1,800Ma matermophic complex strata of Early Proterozoic Xingzi Group that is exposed at the foothill of Lushan Mountain have been included in the "Stratigraphic Lexicon of China".

The fault-block mountain resulted by tectonic movement , glacial erosion and waterflow constitute a composite geomorphologic landscape that is also a geoscientific characteristic of Lushan Mountain. Its vegetation and biological diversity jointly form a magnificent, wonderful, precipitous and beautiful scene of Lushan Mountain, which shows Lushan Mountain’s extreme aesthetic value of geoscientific landscapes.

Lushan Mountain is not only the important cradle of China's landscape culture, but also the birthplace of China's pastoral poems with Tao Yuanming, famous poet in Jin Dynasty, as the founder. In the ancient time, more than 1,500 scientists, literators, philosophers and men of letters used to come to Lushan Mountain for investigation and tourism, and more than 4,000 famous poems and nearly 1,000 scientific papers, travel notes and picture scrolls have been handed down. These fully show that Lushan Mountain is the highlight reflection of China's landscape culture and historic miniature.

The Lushan architectural culture combining Chinese and Western traditions has renowned both at home and abroad. From the end of the 19th century to the thirties of the 20th century, more than 20 countries worldwide came to Guling of Lushan Mountain and built up nearly 1,000 villas. Early at the beginning of the 20th century refreshing and graceful Lushan Mountain was called the "Park of All Nations" and the "World Village". The historic heritages on Lushan Mountain mix, in a unique form, in the beautiful natural landscape of highlight value, forming a cultural landscape which have extreme aesthetic value and is closely integrated with the spirit and cultural life of the Chinese nation.

Contact:

Lushan Scenic and Historic Interest Area Administration Bureau, Jiangsu, China

2, Huiyuan Road, Lushan City, 332900, China

Tel: +86-13879269787

Fax: +86-0792-8282546

E-mail: tsczhu@163.com, redaipaomo@21cn.com

http://www.china-lushan.com