Geopark Overview

        Dali Mount Cangshan UNESCO Global Geopark is in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province. It covers Mount Cangshan and its surrounding area belongs to the city of Dali and the counties of Yangbi and Eryuan, a 933 square kilometers area with the elevation of 1,700 ~ 4,122 meters above sea level. Approved by UNESCO in 2014, this Geopark is composed of the Cangshan Geological and Geomorphologic Landscape District, the Cultural Landscape District around Erhai Lake, and the Highland lake Landscape District.

        The Geopark is of unique and distinctive geological relics. The representative sceneries include: the quaternary glacial landform generated 15,000 years ago, which is the reason why the Dali Glacial Period is so named; the metamorphic rocks formatted by rocks of 2 billion years ago through complicated geological deforming, which is the “textbook” of metamorphic rocks and the reason why the Chinese “marble (Dali Yan)” is so named; the Erhai Lake that is a plateau rift lake caused by uplift of Mount Cangshan due to Himalayan orogenesis; the rock islands and lakeside wetland with erosional lakeshore geomorphic features of Erhai Lake.

        This area is also abundant in biological species depending on the special geographic landform and climatic environment. There are 4,094 species of tracheophyte and 493 species of vertebrate, including 42 species of wild animals of national priority protection, 71 species of wild plants of national priority protection, 51 species of endemic plants and 289 species of type specimen plants of Mount Cangshan (consisting of variants). This area is one of the world-famous localities of flora and fauna type specimens.

        Dali is a famous national historic and cultural city and an important stop on the ancient tea route. The Kingdom of Nanzhao and the Kingdom of Dali lasted for more than 500 years here. There are 25 nationalities besides Bai people, Han people, Yi people and Hui people, forming the special cultural diversity. The Geopark contains 8 national intangible cultural heritages, including the Raosanling of Bai Nationality, the Bai Tie-dye Craftsmanship and the Dali Sanyue Street, as well as 9 major historical and cultural sites protected at the national level, including Chongsheng Temple and Three Pagodas, Taihe City Relic and the Xizhou Ancient Bai Architectural Complex.