Taining Global Geopark is located in the northwest part of Fujian Province. The geopark covers an area of 492.5km2, and comprises four scenic areas, Shiwang, Big Golden Lake, Baxiaya, and Jinrao Mountain, plus a tour to ancient Taining City. The geopark has a number of geological formations and is characterized by the Danxia landform, together with granite, volcanic, and tectonic landscapes. The natural ecological environment of Taining Geopark has kept very well. In addition, there are a number of wonderful man made features in the area. The combination of these geological and man-made features makes the area an attractive and comprehensive geopark.

The area in which Taining is located has experienced a long complicated geological evolutionary history. Taining has long been affected by the interaction between the Pacific and European-Asian Plates since the Late Triassic period. Huge volcanic eruption and igneous magma incursion took place in the area from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous periods.

Since the Late Cretaceous, the area has become a fault-bounded basin controlled by the NE-trend Chong’ an-Shicheng Fault Zone and N-trend Taining-Longyan Fault Zone, and a very thick red bed mainly composed of sandstones and conglomerates has deposited in the basin. After the Cretaceous, the basin has uplifted. The fault activities have also led to the different in the red bed movements with some rising up and some moving down. The rolling terrain has further undergone weathering, erosion and dilapidation. Finally, the original landscape has changed to its today’s infinite enchanting scenery.

Highly developed canyon systems are the main characteristics of the early development stage of the Danxia landform. Complicated fault systems, produced by tectonic movements through geologic history, and water erosion have worked together to form today’s landscape of the geo-park with numerous canyons/valleys across each other. The whole landscape is composed of groups of valleys, including more than 80 linear valleys (A-thread-of sky), more than 150 lane valleys and more than 240 canyons, and is characterized by the deep canyons, high red cliffs, numerous caves, and natural ecology. Some of the canyons cross each other, some extend in parallel, and some are extremely wandering in their courses. As soon as people get into the geo-park, they will see all types of the canyons like straight, incline, wide or narrow ones, and have a great experience in the process of the canyon developing.

In the Taining Geo-park, the number of Danxia caves is so great, the sizes of the cave-groups are so large the models and assemblages of the caves are so fancy, and the scenes of the caves are so attractive that you can hardly see any similar landscape and therefore the Taining Geo-park may also be called the Danxia Cave Museum. These carves have different sizes and shapes, the largest can contain thousands of people, while the smallest are only a few inches. Many of them look just like human being, birds, animals or something else. In a word, they are unique and fantastic. Innumerable caves are embedded in the red cliffs. Some overlay on top of the others, and some assemble together. All these compose a spectacular landscape.
The dynamic or calm water bodies with different widths well integrate with the Danxia landform and the excellent ecology environment. This makes up of the enchanting scenery of “Danxia on water”. The lakes are wide and the wavy water is bluish-green. Some hills stand upright the lakes, while some lakes are surrounded with the hills.


Taining has a long history and has earned its fame of “Ancient Town in Han and Tang Dynasties” or “Famous City in both North and South Song Dynasties”. Some well-known scholars of the Song Dynasty, such as Yang Shi, Li Gang, and Zhu Xi lectured or studied here. There had ever been several magnificent records in the Song Dynasty, such as, four people in a family got Jinshi (a title for the winner of an imperial examination held in the capital every three years and the winner would be a candidate for a high-rank officer); nine people living in the same lane got Juren (a title for a winner of an imperial examination held in the provincial capital every three years and the winner would be a candidate for an officer); and two persons living opposite of a river got Zhuangyuan (a title for the top winner of the highest imperial examination).

People of Taining have made full use of the Danxia Caves, some of which have been the monks, scholars, farmers, and some the desired end of the souls to rest in peace. The house of Li Chunhuan, Minister of War in the Ming Dynasty, is magnificent and was excellently constructed with delicate art and crafts. It is the most well preserved old building of the Ming Dynasty in the area south of the Yangtze River. The Meilin drama, a local drama originated from the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, is one of the rarely preserved Chinese dramas.

The geo-park has an excellent natural ecological environment, with abundant biological diversity. There are a number of rare species of plants and animals in the geo-park. The zonation of vegetation is typical and representative in the subtropical regions from south-eastern China to central Asia.