Geopark & Ecological Environment
Zhangye National Geopark is located at the middle part of the Hexi Corridor and the north foot of Qilian Mountains. Being within the borders of Linze county and Yugur autonomous county of Sunan, it covers an area of 322 square kilometers, while the Zhangye Global Geopark to be established boasts a total area of 1289.71 square kilometers, which consists of such four scenic spots as Colorful Hills, Binggou Danxia, Chinese Yugur Custom Corridor and Nine Spring.
Colorful Hills Scenic Spot: With colorful appearance and majestic impression, the Colorful Hills scenic spot is the unique complex area to a high degree of Danxia landform and Colorful Hills landscape in China, thus being praised as the “Rainbow Mountain in China”, “One of the Top Ten Magical Geographical Wonders in the World ”, etc.
Binggou Danxia Scenic Spot: Featuring distinctive landform and imposing profiling, Binggou Danxia scenic spot is the very place where the landform “the window-lattice-shaped & palatial Danxia” got its name. And it was rated “The Most Representative Window-Lattice-Shaped & Palatial Danxia Landform in China” by Chinese National Geography Journal.
Chinese Yugur Custom Corridor Scenic Spot: Boasting such natural scenery of Qilian Mountains as glaciers, snow-capped mountains, virgin forests and natural grasslands around it, Chinese Yugur Custom Corridor scenic spot attaches great importance to the inheritance of history and culture in Zhangye, and to the connotation of local customs. The vastness of Danxia landform, broadness of prairies and tranquility of forests there all make this place the organic fusion area of Yugur nationality’s history and culture for thousands of years, which is unique to Gansu province, and even to China, successfully highlighting the pure and beautiful scenery of Qilian Mountains and revealing the mysteriousness and richness of Yugur culture.
Nine Spring Scenic Spot: The ophiolite suite in this region recorded the long geological history of the earth’s evolution over hundreds of millions of years and was the location where
the earliest plate research was conducted in China. Besides, it proved the existence of Early Paleozoic ancient Qilian Sea. Nine Spring plate suture zone, however, was considered to be the evidence of the combination of North China Plate and Qaidam Plate in the early Ordovician (490-413 Ma), which well recorded Early Paleozoic land-sea changes and boasted great significance to the globally comparative study. Therefore, Nine Spring was one of the field trip routes of the 30th International Geological Congress and an important stop of ACTER’s field trips in 2018 as well.
The peculiar and spectacular geological landforms in Zhangye Geopark are of great particularity and uniqueness in the whole country and even in the world. Boasting high value of scientific research and appreciation, they are the gifts of nature to Qilian Mountains and rare gems of geological resources in China. And the original inhabitants of the past dynasties treasured it as the “Mother Mountain”. At the same time, they gave vivid names and legendary stories to the beautiful landscapes, so that the high-quality geological tourism resources and folk customs can be preserved and inherited for a long time.
Always adhering to the general principle of “developing while protecting, protecting while developing and upholding protection first” to develop georesources, the Administration for Zhangye Geopark organized relevant departments and partners to commit to the inheritance of history and culture and to the sustainable development of primary georesources. The geological natural resources in the Geopark are managed in different zones with strict protection, moderate development, scientific restoration, wide publicity and precise monitoring, accomplishing the integration of the development of natural resources and the protection of ecological environment in the park, and managing to take the road of circular development in which tourism development drives local economy and promotes the scientific research and protection of geoheritages.
Carrying Out Partition Management to Promote Coordinated Development of Exploitation & Utilization and Ecological Protection
Geoheritages are non-renewable and precious resources. Therefore, the Administration for Zhangye Geopark classifies and manages the natural resources in the park according to their characteristics and functions, and these resources are divided into one special-grade geoheritage protection zone, five first-level ones, three second-level zones and three third-level protection areas. Protection measures are formulated according to the protection requirements of different-level protection areas. Furthermore, 172 boundary markers have been laid at the boundaries of the Geopark and the protection zones at all levels, and 152 guide signs have been set up, such as traffic signs, environmental protection and geological protection warnings, etc. Dividing areas featuring great scientific research value, fragile ecological environment and depth of geoheritages into the first-class protection zones, the Geopark forbids tourists to enter these areas and only allows the approved scientific researchers to carry out necessary environmental protection and scientific research activities in them. What’s more, no construction facilities are allowed to be set up there. The second-level protection zones mainly refer to the historic tourism areas which are at the periphery of geoheritages and characterized by high appreciation value and strong representativeness. And relevant protection facilities such as walking paths, fences and warning signs have been installed in these areas on the basis of not destroying the original geological landforms, greatly facilitating tourists to have a sightseeing in the restricted areas. Other areas, accordingly, are divided into the third-level protection areas. Besides, museums for exhibiting geology, folk culture, photography, etc have been established, and special ecological towns such as Danxiakou and Qicai Town have been built according to regional characteristics, so that tourists can enjoy sightseeing in the Geopark and have a leisure experience outside it.
Restoring and Improving Eco-Environmental Damaged Areas According to Local Conditions
Since the 1960s, the Geopark, due to historical reasons, has undergone man-made development activities of various scales, such as forest harvesting, mining exploitation, small hydropower stations and tourism facilities construction, etc. Since the Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve was established in 1987, and especially after the national adjustment of Qilian Mountains Nature Reserve in 2014, all kinds of construction projects have been greatly reduced, and the man-made activities inconsistent with the protection and development objectives of the Geopark have been completely stopped. However, over 40 years of non-standardized development and utilization have caused different degrees of damage to the ecological environment of some regions within the park. Adhering to the principle of “natural recovery going first and artificial restoration functioning as the supplement” to restore and improve ecological environment in recent years, the governments at both municipal and county levels take various measures to restore and improve eco-environmental damaged areas featuring the damage of mountain bodies, accumulation of ore slag and river damage, etc in the Geopark which were caused by non-standardized man-made activities such as mining exploitation and small hydropower stations development and so on.
Determining Livestock Number by Grassland Carrying Capacity, and Promoting the Healthy Development of Animal Husbandry in A Virtuous Circle
The part of the Geopark overlaps with the historical living quarters of more than 20 thousand herdsmen from Yugur nationality which is unique to Gansu province, even to China, and the traditional grazing area covers all the regions in the Geopark whose natural resources, accordingly, have been seriously damaged by such elements as excessive grazing activities. To alleviate the pressure of protecting ecological environment, the local government, based on the animal husbandry development idea of keeping the grassland-livestock balance, has been scientifically determining the livestock number by analyzing grassland carrying capacity, and carrying out the prohibition and rotation of grazing according to local conditions in recent years. Besides, breeding in shield has been vigorously developed and both farmers and herdsmen in the Geopark have been encouraged to take part in the park’s tourism and public welfare management and protection affairs. All of the above measures have contributed to the protection and utilization of the grassland resources in the Geopark, and to the taking of the virtuous developing road featuring sustainable management.
Carrying Out Wide Publicity to Agglomerate the Consciousness of Protecting Geological Resources and Ecological Environment
In order to further deepen the understanding of community residents and tourists to the Geopark construction and eco-environment protection, cultivate their senses of responsibility to protect eco-environment, and enhance their self-consciousness and initiative to take part in the Geopark construction, thus forging a model featuring the common construction, management and sharing by all the people, the Administration for Zhangye Geopark, based on the scientific popularization and publicity as well as protection and utilization of geoheritages, gives full play to its potential and advantages in ecological protection, publicity and mobilization, as well as demonstration and promotion via government units, village committees, schools, scenic spots, museums, airport stations, taxis and tourism teams,etc. Besides, various measures have been taken to vigorously carry out geoscience publicity and education to the whole society, thus creating a strong atmosphere of establishing the Global Geopark in an all-round way. For example, they built a geological school in the park and offer geoscience popularization courses mainly dealing with the protection of geoheritages and the value of ecological function, which makes it possible to lead students to practically understand the value and meaning of protecting ecology and to form a good social atmosphere of educating a child and further promoting a family, thus accomplishing the goal of getting the whole society to know and construct the Geopark, and to share the results of eco-environment protection.
Perfecting Facilities and Reducing the Impact of Tourism Activities on Geopark Eco-Environment
Aiming at minimizing the impact of tourism activities on the park’s native landforms, animals and plants, the Administration for Zhangye Geopark requires scenic spots to use environmental-friendly sightseeing vehicles to centrally transport tourists. Besides, in accordance with the principle of being coordinated with the original landforms, viewing corridors have been built to guide tourists to have a sightseeing in designated areas, and to prevent them from trampling on geoheritages and vegetation. And environmental toilets and garbage cans are set up to classify and dispose of garbage harmlessly, so as to minimize the pollution and interference of tourism to ecological environment. Furthermore, tourist centers, parking lots, hotels, farmyards and other facilities for sightseeing and leisure have been established outside the scenic spots to avoid random diffusion of tourists to the surrounding areas, thus preventing the interference and destruction of the nature by tourists from spreading to more places. In recent years, local governments and scenic spots administrations have invested 3.5 billion yuan to successively construct 26 major tourism projects, such as Danxia Expressway, Danxia Landscape Avenue, Comprehensive Tourist Center, sightseeing and supporting facilities inside scenic spots, Hexi Folklore Expo Park, Qicai Town and Danxiakou Folklore Culture Tourism Village, etc. What’s more, 16 high-standard tourist toilets are newly built in the park.
Improving the Monitoring and Evaluating Levels of Geological Resources and Eco-Environment with the Assistance of Science and Technology
In order to enhance the scientific management of geological resources and related ecological environment in the park and to raise the level of early warning, prevention and control of risks, the Administration for Zhangye Geopark timely incorporated the Geopark’s management areas into the eco-environment monitoring system featuring integration of heaven and earth in Zhangye. Applying such information technologies as satellite remote sensing, aerial remote sensing and ground monitoring, the system manages to form a three-dimensional ecological environment supervision scale featuring “sky view, aerial exploration and ground survey”, and regularly compares the ecological environment background data of all kinds of natural resources in the park, so as to provide detailed and reliable dynamic monitoring data for ecological environment impact assessment of such activities in the park as geoheritage protection, biodiversity research, tourism development and construction, etc. At the same time, administrations for scenic spots were urged to invest more than 20 million yuan to develop a smart system for scenic spots management, and to set up 320 surveillance cameras, thus achieving a full coverage of major geoheritages and ecological protection areas. Through the command and dispatch center, we can be timely informed of the tourist flows, distribution areas and tour behaviors, and then appropriately take control measures. Therefore, the Geopark’s abilities of scientific management and early warning and control of risks have been effectively improved.