Yanqing UNESCO Global Geopark

Yanqing UNESCO Global Geopark is located in the northwestern part of Beijing. The UNESCO Global Geopark is to the west and north of Changping, east of Mount Songshan, south of Chicheng of Hebei province. Based on geoheritage resources and distribution, Yanqing UNESCO Global Geopark is divided into four scenic areas: the Longqingxia and Guyaju Scenic Areas are in the west, the Qianjiadian Scenic Area in the east, and Badaling Scenic Area in the south.

Yanqing UNESCO Global Geopark has experienced a long geological history, and created abundant geoheritage sites. On the bedding planes of thousand-meter carbonate rocks formed about 1.9 Ga to 0.8 billion years ago, there are various and complex ripple marks. It also has particular angle unconformity in the geologic history; as well as the various intrusive rocks, extrusive rocks and many contact relations formed in the different stages of Yanshanian movement; furthermore, there are large-scale piedmont fault, nearly vertical strata, huge dome, anticline and magnificient monoclinal structures formed in Yanshanian movement. In addition, the flourishing plants and numerous dinosaurs lived during the period of Yanshanian movement have left abundant silicified woods and dinosaur footprints, according to these footprints, there were not only common meat-eating theropods, but also plant-eating sauropods, ankylosaurs and ornithopods living in the Geopark at that time, which are not discovered in adjacent regions. These dinosaur footprints have become the unique and precious geoheritage in the Geopark. Since the Cenozoic, the Yanshanian movement-induced dense faults and joints cut the exposed Meso- to Neoproterozoic carbonates into many blocks, the karstification has shaped these rocks into magnificent karst landforms, so the Geopark has become one of typical North-China-type karst landform sites in China.