The Qinling Zhongnanshan Geopark of China is located in the southern precinct of Xi’an city, Shaanxi Province, approximately 25km to the center of the city town. It covers an area of 1,074.85 square kilometers. The territory of the Geopark lies in the main section of the Qinling Mountains that formed a naturally transitional zone dividing the China’s territory into the southern and the northern parts. Both the parts are featured in different natural geographic factors in geology, biology, water system, soil, climate, and also in cultures. Therefore, since the 1880’s, the Qinling Mountains have provided a great attraction to geological communities for their long history of geological evolution, intensive and complicated tectonics, integral outcrops of stratigraphy, various magmatic rocks, metamorphic rocks and abundant geological heritage.
    The Qinling Mountains are one of the typical representatives of continental orogenic zones in the world and also the central orogenic belt in China. Being at the forefront of developing ideas and concepts in the understanding of the geological processes and formation of tectonics, the Qinling Mountains preserved the most intact geoheritage of the collisional suture zone between the North China Plate and the Yangtze Plate. Furthermore, a big piedmont fault passing by the north side of Qinling Mountains is a place where the orogenic zone and the rift basin got into contact.
    The Geopark is separable into five sub-geoparks that are featured in their own specialties and mutual relationships, in which eight individual scenic areas and two ad hoc itineraries for geo-tourism are included. The five sub-geoparks are depicted as follows:
    1) The Cuihuashan sub-geopark is representative with mountain collapse-slide that occurred 2,787 years ago, which was resulted from earthquakes in multiple phases. The main body of Mt. Cuihuashan comprises granite and migmatite, and the mountain collapse-slide constituted the geological heritage sites with various appearances, such as collapse bluffs, barrier lakes, barrier dam, caves formed by mutually supported huge stones and miraculously picturesque stones, occupying a total area of 5.2km2 with a total quantity of collapsed rocks about 300,000,000 m3. The free surfaces that were resulted from rock collapse are present in residual peaks, scarps and precipices, generally 100-250m high. The mountain collapse-slide reflected the constant orogenic activities in Qinling Mountains from the Cenozoic period.
    2) The South Taibai sub-geopark demonstrates the final glaciations in the Quaternary period of 11,500 years ago, where the Quaternary glacial heritage is preserved in complete and with different poses and expressions, including mountain lakes, pyramidal peaks, trough valley, cirque lakes and glacial staircase. The Quaternary Glacier in Mt. Taibaishan is unanimous in an important region for research into the Qinling fossil glaciations and the Quaternary glacial period in China, which can compare with that of the Wurm glaciations (Alps), Weichsel glaciations (the North Europe) and the Wisconsin glaciations (U.S.A). It has an important significance in research of the changes in climate and the glaciations during the Quaternary period in China and Eastern Asia.
    3) The Lishan sub-geopark is representative of the Lishan fault block, which is an isolated horst-like fault mountain in the Weihe graben and featured in rhombic shapes controlled by two groups of normal faults in NEE and NNE directions. Owing to the neotectonic movement, the Lishan fault block was in tilting upward as a whole and featuring upward in the north and downward in the south. The typical tectonic landform of fault blocks, huge height differences in geomorphology, very thick Cenozoic sediments and intensive seismic activities occurring in history have made the Weihe graben an important base for research into the Quaternary geology and neotectonic movements in China. The evidences showing the fault activities from the Quaternary period are demonstrated clear to the visitors. In the Weihe graben and its periphery, geothermal resources are abundant along the fault zones, in which the natural outcrops of hot springs mainly present along the piedmont fault of Qinling Mountains, such as in eastern Tangyu area in Lantian district and the Huaqing pool in Lintong district. The hot spring occurring in the Huaqing pool has the temperature up to 43?C and a circulation depth 982m. According to the historic records, the geothermal water in this area has begun to be used since the Zhou Dynasty (1046 B.C. -256 B.C.).
    4) The Yushan sub-geopark demonstrates the granite peaks and ridges to the visitors. They are representative of intracontinental orogenics, magmatic activities and strong compression during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic era in Qinling Mountains. In the area of the sub-geopark, the heritage site of an intact skull fossil of Homo erectus lantienensis that was discovered in Gongwangling village in 1963 indicates that human beings were attracted to the foot area of Qinling Mountains around the Paleolithic Age, about 1.15 million years ago. Thereafter, a mandible fossil (600,000-700,000 years) and more than 200 pieces of stone implements were excavated in the heritage site.
    5) The Bingjingding sub-geopark is representative of the geoheritage of ductile-shear zone and tectonic migmatite. Varieties of the Palaeoproterozoic migmatite, rock veins, erosional valleys by rivers and waterfalls are the major attractions and the virgin forest, peaks, ridges, escarpment and alpine meadows are accessible to visitors in this area.
     Along both the Heihe itinerary and the Fengyu itinerary ad hoc for geo-tourism, varieties of geological heritage sites showing the records of the formation, development and evolution history of the Qinling Orogenic Belt are visible to the visitors, including bedding recumbent folds, top thicken folds, rootless folds, boudin, and tectonic lens in ductile-brittle shear zone.
    The Qinling Zhongnanshan Geopark is a geographical area where geoheritage sites are part of a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. It also includes abundant heritage sites of natural, cultural, religious and social history, which are inextricably linked and cannot be separated.
    The Qinling Mountains possess colorful biological resources for its transitional position between the Palaearctic and Oriental Realm of six major faunas in the world. It spans the northern sub-tropical zone and the southern warm temperature zone. There are 37 global monotypic genera, 60 rare genera, and 23 specific genera of China, and 64 plants under the protection of national/ provincial level.
    Another successful element of the public awareness is the splendid landscapes and scenery attractions in the Geopark. There are over 100 cascades and waterfalls, numerous water ponds, natural lakes, canyons and glens, fantastic granite ridges and peaks, and a lot of huge ornamental rocks in the Geopark. Walking in the Geopark, all these scenery would make you feel that your eyes couldn’t take them all in.
    The fact that thirteen dynasties in ancient China (from 1,122 B.C to 907 A.D.) had established their capitals near and/or in Xi’an city has left behind numerous historic and religious heritage sites in the area of the Geopark, including royal gardens, hill villas, and many temples that were bequeathed by emperorships, artists, poets, monks and Taoists.
    The temples near and/or in the Geopark have profoundly influenced the development of religions in China, some of which are cradle lands of religious sects of Buddhism and Taoism in China, such as the Louguantai Temple, the Caotang Temple, the Xiangji Temple, the Huayan Temple, and the Jinye Temple. Otherwise, the Xingjiao temple is the burial ground for the remains of Monk Xuan Zang, a famous translator and traveler in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) of China in ancient times.
    The area also displays exceptionally strong links between its landscape and social history. One of the most celebrated poets in the late of the Tang Dynasty of China, Bai Juyi (772-846 A.D.), was inspired by the landscape here and wrote his famous poem, “A Song of Eternal Sorrow”, narrating an emperor’s love story occurring in this area.
    The Geopark is also representative of Chinese rural tradition and local folk customs in Northwestern China. Sustainable tourism and other economic activities within the Geopark are often carried out in cooperation with local communities. In respect to the tradition of the local populace, the tourism activities include the Folk Ceremony Play (Shehuo), the Temple Fair, the Qin’s Drama, the Music Strains Accompanied by Drumbeats, the Mihu Drama, the Shadow Play Art, and the Farmer’s Painting of Huxian and so on.
    The Geopark provides and organizes support, tools and activities to communicate geoscientific knowledge and environmental concepts to the public. It has already become a pedagogical and scientific base for China University of Geosciences, Northwest University, Chang’an University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other relevant organizations. Many students and teenagers make their field practice and research in the Geopark every year and it has already served as a pedagogic base of popular sciences for junior scholars.
     The establishment of the National Geopark has already stimulated the creation of innovative local enterprises, small business, and initiative high quality training courses and new jobs by generating new sources of revenue while protecting the geo-resources of the Geopark. Up to date, there are more than 120 merchants and shops, 9 hotels with about 1,000 guest rooms and approximately 1,000 of cottages doing the business of “Enjoyable Farmhouse” in the territory of the Geopark.
     From the center of Xi’an city to the territory of the Geopark, the city buses provide convenient access to visitors.The roads running along the hills in the Geopark connect the five sub-geoparks together. All the sub-geoparks have a long development history, in which the paths and paved roads have a good quality on surface. They provide complete safety and protection facilities and extensive areas for tourists to visit. All traffic facilities and parking lots are designed to be of environment-protection type and in accordance with the requirements for sustainable development.
    As member of the National Geoparks Network of China from 2001, the Geopark has the geological features inside linked to one another and safeguarded in a formally managed park-type situation. The identity of the Geopark is clearly visible for visitors through a strong public relations concept including common branding/labeling of the sites, guided tourism, guide map, guidebook, explicit labels and/or signs for geoheritage and plants, publications and all activities taking place there.
    Situated in the center part of the tourist network in Shaanxi province, the Geopark is also important in the tourism system of the whole country. It plays an important role in the famous tour lines of the “Silk Road Tour” and the “Well-chosen Tourist Resorts in China” and especially, it also is one of the important tourist resorts for understanding of China.