Hanzhong Tiankeng Group is the oldest ＂pit＂ or is over 680,000 years old and wants to declare the World Geopark.
What do you think of when you mention sinkholes? Mysterious, dark, strange and exotic animals and plants. The discovery of the Hanzhong Tiankeng Group in Shaanxi, China in recent two years has attracted the attention of the world. Tiankeng Group has become another beautiful business card in Hanzhong after the Han culture of "Two Han and Three Kingdoms".
The discovery of the sinkholes in Hanzhong increased the number of sinkholes in China from 84 to 138, accounting for 39%, and increased the number of sinkholes discovered and confirmed in the world from 117 to 171, accounting for 31.6%, making it a well-deserved "first sinkhole group in the world". Jean Bottazzi, an internationally renowned cave explorer, praised the Shanjiayan Cave River Tiankeng in Ningqiang, Hanzhong as "the most beautiful Tiankeng in the world".
On March 13th, the academic seminar of Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, hosted by Shaanxi Geological Survey Institute, was held in Xi ‘an. Famous experts, scholars and government officials from home and abroad discuss practical issues such as the future development mode, protection and development strategy of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group, and plan the blueprint for the future road of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group.
The other side of the beauty of Hanzhong in Tiankeng Group
When it comes to Hanzhong, the mysterious, beautiful and unknown sinkholes will show another side of Hanzhong. Let the ancient Hanzhong be more aura and beautiful than the rigid and serious history.
What is a sinkhole? Luo Gan Zhou, director of Shaanxi Geological Survey Center, gave his own answer to this question in a relatively easy-to-understand language. Tiankeng refers to a geomorphological feature that the steep walls around it have a certain scale (generally more than 100 meters in depth and width) and develop in carbonate rock areas.
"It is inferred that the sinkholes in Hanzhong Tiankeng Group were formed 180,000 to 120,000 years ago, and the oldest can be traced back to 680,000 years ago. By studying the sinkholes, we can study the ancient geographical environment and climate, which can help us better understand the past. Unique terrain and special ecological environment under negative terrain are the best places for people to understand geological and climate changes. " Luo Ganzhou expressed the significance of tiankeng to the contemporary era.
Li Yichao, a senior engineer of Shaanxi Geological Survey Institute who has been engaged in tiankeng investigation for a long time, went deep into the bottom of tiankeng for exploration and research many times. Speaking of the exploration of the Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong, Li Yichao has endless stories. Interest and hardship coexist, and the tiankeng, which is rare on weekdays, is really charming but full of challenges.
"Most of the traffic in tiankeng is not very convenient. After getting off the bus, the team members have to carry more than 100 kilograms of equipment and food to walk for five or six hours. Generally speaking, we may walk for two minutes at most at a distance of more than 300 meters, but it will take more than an hour to go down the sinkhole. It takes more time to get up, it takes more than three hours to get up, and you can only get up and down with the help of lifting and rescue equipment. The degree of hardship can be imagined. Professional climbing gloves, our team members can wear out three pairs a month. It can be seen that this is difficult. The investigation is very hard, but our contribution is worth it. " Li Yichao said.
Luo Gan Zhou Xiang told Uncle Fang a little detail: "Once I went down the sinkhole, the road was very steep. I walked downhill for several hours, and my toenails were against my shoes. When I got back, I felt that my toenails were very painful and the color was a little black. A few days later, the toenail cover of my big toe fell off directly, which was particularly painful." Luo Ganzhou, who is over 50 years old, speaks lightly, but the dangers and pains may only be known to him.
Of course, the hardships are also full of fun. The light in the sinkhole is insufficient, and the darkness is beyond imagination. When two people sit face to face, they don’t move, and you may not feel anyone around you. But in the sinkhole, you can see transparent fish, meet all kinds of strange animals and plants, strange stalactites, and all kinds of strange geological structures and climate phenomena that are hard to see on weekdays.
Through many photos taken by investigators, it is not difficult to find that there are many spacious cave halls, mysterious and strange underground rivers, magnificent stalactites, stalagmites, edge stone dams and many other ingenious works from nature. For thousands of years, a unique primitive microclimate has been formed in the sinkhole, and the animal food chain and unique habitat in it are irreplaceable. In addition to these peculiar geological products, there are many animals and creatures, among which thousands of richness such as "Shafei Colored Grey Butterfly", "Blooming Pink Butterfly", "Elephant Cicada", "Green Scarab" and "Liliaceae Big Lily" were photographed by the respondents alone.
Flying cats are unique animals in Hanzhong Tiankeng. The flying cat’s scientific name is the flying squirrel, also known as "six unlike". It has a face like a fox, eyes like a cat, a rat with a pointed mouth, ears like a rabbit, paws like a duck, and a tail like a squirrel. Its wide fins between the front and rear legs can glide between cliffs and trees, with a maximum head and tail length of 1 meter and a weight of more than 7 kg. This kind of animal is very shy. It lies in the daytime and comes out at night. In addition, it is increasingly rare. It is not easy to see a living flying cat with one’s own eyes.
It is understood that the Hanzhong Tiankeng Group is the first tiankeng group with the highest latitude in the world discovered in the range of 32 ~ 33 north latitude. This discovery has important scientific value and fills the gap in the world karst geology research. There are 54 Tiankeng Groups in Hanzhong discovered this time, which are mainly distributed in Chanjiayan Town, ningqiang county, Hanzhong City, Xiaonanhai Town, Nanzheng County, Luojiaba Town, Xixiang County and Sanyuan Town, zhenba county. This discovery has increased the number of sinkholes in the world from 117 to 171, accounting for 1/3 of the global number of sinkholes, including 2 super sinkholes, 7 large sinkholes, 45 conventional sinkholes and 473 other geological relics.
Academician Yuan Daoxian of Chinese Academy of Sciences believes that the Hanzhong Tiankeng Group is located at latitude 32-mdash; — It was discovered for the first time in the range of 33 degrees, which made China moist in the tropics — The boundary of subtropical karst landform area has obviously moved northward, which has important scientific value. Reasonable protection, development and utilization of geological relics resources of Tiankeng Group will play an important role in promoting local economic development.
The important value of the discovery of the rare "Tiankeng Group" in Hanzhong lies in that it not only greatly enriches the tourism resources of geological relics in China and even the world, but also fills the blank of karst geology research in the world and increases the original samples of biological research. Through the study of its formation mechanism, conditions and evolution law, it will be of great scientific value to the study of paleogeographic environment and climate change in the north and south of China and even the whole world, and it will be praised by experts as a world-class "natural museum" that rewrites geological history.
Ambition to declare world geoparks and natural heritage
The geological park selected by UNESCO is a natural park with its geological scientific significance, exotic beauty and unique geological landscape, which integrates natural landscape and human landscape. The goal of UNESCO is to select more than 500 geological landscapes worthy of preservation and strengthen protection. At present, 35 geoparks in China have entered the UNESCO World Geopark Network List.
Whether it is a geopark or a world natural heritage, it is a leader in the global natural landscape, and its scientific significance and tourism appreciation significance are self-evident.
The reporter learned from different channels that at present, all parties are actively preparing for the world geopark and natural heritage declaration for the unique geological relic of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group.
The Hanzhong Municipal Government specially issued the Interim Measures for the Protection and Management of Geological Relics of Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong City, which made specific provisions on the scope of geological relics protection, regional management and protection measures, and legal responsibilities. Hanzhong will conscientiously do a good job in the protection of geological relics of Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong.
Hanzhong Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources said in a reply that Hanzhong will gradually promote the declaration of national and even world geoparks and natural heritage in due course.
It is understood that in October 2016, the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Land and Resources has awarded the provincial geological park construction qualification of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group; According to the provincial geological park planning to complete the construction task, Shaanxi Provincial Department of Land and Resources acceptance before the provincial geological park can be named. Provincial geoparks can only be declared as national geoparks after they are officially named for two years. Hanzhong will do a good job in basic work and declare national and even world-class geological parks and natural heritage according to relevant procedures.
Mao Xiaochang, a senior engineer of China Geological Survey, said in his speech that the formation mechanism of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group is different from that of South Tiankeng Group, and its biodiversity is also unique. Therefore, Hanzhong Tiankeng Group has the conditions to become a world-class in terms of rarity, scientificity, aesthetics and protection.
How to make good use of high-quality resources in developing and protecting economically underdeveloped areas
Tiankeng is a unique natural wonder, unique to karst conditions. In the natural landscape, it has a series of special tourism ornamental values and sensory attributes, such as rarity, strangeness, precipitousness, grandeur, beauty and unique ecological environment. At the same time, tiankeng always coexists with caves, underground rivers, strange peaks and rocks and other tourism resources, so it is undoubtedly a special super tourism resource.
It is understood that Chongqing Xiaozhai Tiankeng was opened to tourists in 1999, and Guangxi Leye Dashiwei Tiankeng Group is in the process of tourism development planning. In the future, the karst tiankeng scenic spot will add a bright spot to the world tourism industry.
How can Hanzhong miss such a good opportunity? In May, 2017, Hanzhong Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources and Hanzhong Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and Tourism jointly reported the topic to Hanzhong Municipal Government, suggesting that the world-class planning units should be selected, and in accordance with the principle of "development in protection and protection in development", Hanzhong Tiankeng Group’s geological relics protection and tourism development and utilization plan should be actively worked out, combining Tiankeng tourism with new formats such as culture, leisure, recreation, sports and research, and steadily promoting the geological relics protection and tourism development of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group.
Faced with such world-class tourism resources, it is reasonable for Hanzhong, which is economically underdeveloped, to have the impulse to develop and utilize it. However, tiankeng resources belong to non-renewable natural heritage resources, and once improperly developed, it will bring irreparable losses.
At the seminar, the reporter also heard different voices, but the voice of "protection first and moderate development" still dominated. For Hanzhong, where the economic strength is not strong and the pressure of getting rid of poverty is great, how to use the resources of Tiankeng Group to promote regional economic development and promote the local people to get rich and increase their income has become the main problem faced by the politicians.
The reporter had a detailed exchange with the deputy county (district) governors of zhenba county, Nanzheng District and ningqiang county. The conclusion is that everyone wants to use Tiankeng resources to promote the development of county economy, but this kind of utilization must be based on strict protection, and we should avoid rough development and homogeneous development of four counties, and start with high-end tourism and take a sustainable development path.
Zhou Qingfu, deputy county magistrate of zhenba county, told reporters that zhenba county will make rational use of Tiankeng, a high-quality resource, publicize Zhenba’s good ecological environment advantages on the basis of strict protection and reasonable planning, develop the Chinese herbal medicine industry around the high-quality ecological environment, and build Zhenba into a high-quality health care, pension, sports and experience base.
Wang Jun, the deputy head of Nanzheng District, also put forward his own views on the development of Hanzhong Tiankeng Group. Hanzhong Tiankeng Group should avoid large-scale development and give priority to protection. At present, it is difficult to develop Tiankeng with the ability of counties and districts, and it is easy to cause homogenization. Tiankeng is ecologically fragile and unrecoverable, and its safety is poor, so the development of Tiankeng should take the road of high-quality development.
Wang Longqing, chairman of Hanzhong CPPCC, believes that Tiankeng Group is the most precious, valuable and internationally influential resource discovered in Hanzhong so far. Establishing a research base for Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong is beneficial to the investigation, scientific management and development, geological monitoring and protection of Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong. Hanzhong City should take this opportunity, rely on the scientific research base as the platform, fully support the geological exploration work of the Provincial Geological Survey Institute, make overall consideration of the construction of the research base and geological museum, as well as security measures, attract world-class high-level talents to come to China for extensive exchanges, hire international professional teams to carry out development planning, and promote the scientific research and tourism development and utilization of Hanzhong Tiankeng resources in an orderly manner.
Mao Xiaochang, a senior engineer of China Geological Survey, also put forward his own views on the development of tiankeng. First, priority should be given to protection, and a high-end tiankeng adventure tour can be explored under the premise of protection. Tiankeng, a tourist resource, is not suitable for large-scale development. The location of the sinkhole should explore the mode of high-end in-depth tour, and professionals can be explored to explain professional geological and geographical knowledge to tourists, so that tourists can fully feel the unique charm of the sinkhole through five or six hours of in-depth tour. In addition, we can try to involve villagers in tourism, and develop some special projects such as geological and cultural villages and towns in the periphery to promote the development of local people.
Facing high-quality natural resources development and protection are not contradictory opposites. If we cling to the principle of protection and don’t make rational use of it, it will only be a good opportunity to delay development. If Jiuzhaigou clung to protection and didn’t seek development, it would be difficult to achieve such great achievements in local economic development today. However, development is not a kind of quick success and instant benefit, and it is a rational development path for the protection and local development of Tiankeng Group in Hanzhong to make long-term planning and rational utilization from the perspective of future generations’ long-term development. Presenting the most beautiful side of Hanzhong to the world may be the best protection for Hanzhong Tiankeng Group.