The Danxia Mountain, famous for its Danxia sandstone landforms, was listed as one of eight Chinese UNESCO world geoparks revealed in Paris Friday (Feb. 13).

Danxia, which tops Guangdong's most famous four mountains, is located in northeast of Shaoguan City in north of the province.

Covered by red sandstone, the 290-square kilometer geopark is also called China's "red stone park." Most cliffs of the mountain stand between 300 and 400 meters above the sea level, while the highest is 618 meters. In the 1930s, Chen Guoda, a famous Chinese geologist named the red sandstone cliffs "Danxia landform," which was since used to describe such a landform universally. Danxia Mountain was named a national geopark in 2001.

UNESCO plans to name 20-30 world geoparks annually, and the first batch of 28 have been selected, including eight in China and 20 others in Europe.

The first group of 8 world geoparks in China:

Danxia Mountain Geopark in Shaoguan, Guangdong;

Huangshan Mountain Geopark in Anhui;

Zhangjiajie Gritstone Peak Forest National Geopark in Hunan;

Lushan Mountain Quaterary Period Glacier National Geopark in Jiangxi;

Karst Stone Forest National Geopark in Yunnan;

Wudalianchi Volcano Cluster National Geopark in Heilongjiang;

Songshan Mountain Stratum Structure National Geopark in Henan;

Yuntai Mountain Geopark in Henan.

Editor: Wings