Funiushan UGGp Investigation Group Came to Zhangye UGGp to Enhance Communication and Cooperation

From May 18 to 19, an investigation group from Funiushan UGGp came to Zhangye UGGp for investigation and exchange. The group visited Colorful Hills and Binggou Danxia of Zhangye UGGp and joined an exchange meeting to share their experiences. During the meeting, the director of Zhangye UGGp introduced the geoheritages, natural resources, ethnic culture, and industrial development within the geopark. The two geoparks discussed how to improve the interpretation system in the geoparks, upgrade the infrastructure, conduct science popularization activities, and promote the geoheritagtes protection legislation. And then, the Funiushan UGGp shared their experiences on the development of rural industries, the protection of fossil resources, and the conduction of scientific research. Later, the two geoparks signed a sister geopark agreement to deepened communication and cooperation.

The director of Zhangye UGGp stated that Zhangye UGGp would take the revalidation as an opportunity to learn the advanced work experiences from Funiushan UGGp carefully, further improve the management and construction standard of the geopark, leverage the brand influence of the UNESCO Global Geoparks, promote the community industries development, conduct scientific research and science popularization activities in an advanced way, enhance the communication and cooperation, improve the comparative research on the genetic mechanism of ophiolite, and make new achievements in promoting the construction of ecological civilization in nature reserves.

Funiushan UNESCO Global Geopark lies in the hinterland of the Funiu Mountain Range in Henan province. With those parts of the mountain located respectively in the counties of Xixia, Neixiang, Luanchuan,Songxian, and Nanzhao as its main body, the geopark covers an area of 5,858.52 km2. Being located in the eastern section of China’s Central Orogenic System, the geopark has gone through a number of geological processes, such as the collision and connection between the northern and southern continental plates in ancient China and orogeny, which is of great scientific value for researches in the composite continental dynamics of the Qinling Orogenic Belt. The rich storage of dinosaur-egg fossils in the geopark is matchless in the world. Funiushan Mountain has become a significant region for studying the reproductive habits of dinosaurs and unlocking the mystery of species extinction. Under the prolonged geological actions, granites of different periods have formed a variety of geomorphologic landscapes. The geopark lies in the transitional region of the northern subtropical zone and temperate zone and serves as the watershed of the three major water systems in China, namely, the Yellow River, Huai River, and Yangtze River. With high vegetation coverage and abundant biological resources, the geopark is an important “gene pool” of species and a breeding ground for biological inheritance and succession in Henan Province. The area in which the geopark lies has a long history and a brilliant culture with abundant cultural heritages. With its rich geological connotation, beautiful natural landscapes and profound cultural background, Mt. Funiushan is an ideal region for the research of the formation and evolution of Qinling Orogenic Belt, the correlational study of dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs, as well as a desirable destination for popular science education, tourism, and vocations.