China's biggest volcanic island and a group of ancient sink holes, both located in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have been listed as national geological parks.
The Ministry of Land and Resources announced on Tuesday 41 new geological parks, bringing the total number to 85.
Weizhou island, a 25-square-kilometer volcanic island, is 26 nautical miles off Beihai, a scenic port city facing Beibu Gulf.
The island is known as a "Museum of Volcanoes" and is thought to be the youngest volcanic island in China as geologists believe its latest eruption dates back about 7,000 to 10,000 years.
It is surrounded by a large area of coral reef and is inhabited by 15,000 people.
Each year, the island receives hundreds of thousands of sightseers, who come to view the remains of volcanic eruptions such as craters, pozzolana, lava and unique scenic spots formed by marine abrasion.
Guangxi's second contribution to the national list of geological parks is its doline group, the oldest and largest group of 27 ancient sink holes in the world, located in Leye County, 460 km from the regional capital Nanning.
The doline group was formed 65 million years ago, and "Dashiwei", the largest hole of the group, is 613 meters deep and 420 meters wide. The virgin forest at the bottom of the doline covers nearly 100,000 square meters. It is home to over 1,000 varieties of plants and animals, including rare species such as blind fish and flying squirrels, as well as crabs and shrimp.
The dolines were discovered in 1998 and opened as a tourist destination in October 2003.
As a special geological landscape found in karst regions, dolines were formed by repeated cave-ins of the tops of underground caves and are mainly seen in China, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.
Also on the list of 41 new geological parks announced Tuesday are the scenic resorts of Jiuzhaigou, in the southwestern Sichuan Province, Yandangshan Mountain, in the eastern Zhejiang Province, Wangwushan Mountain, in the central Henan Province, and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
The Stone Forest in the southwestern Yunnan Province was among the first 11 geological parks named in 2000. Another 33 sites were added to the list in 2002.
(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2004)
