Werner Janoschek, secretary-general of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), and the UN experts' inspection group set off on field trip to the Mount Lushan on November 10. It was the first time that China's eight national geological parks were attempting to make the UNESCO's World Geopark list.

In 1996, the UNESCO Division of Earth Sciences put forward a program to protect the world's existing geological relics and sites. All countries in the program were asked to commend their own geological parks. Thus a worldwide geological relic reserve was expected to take shape. The program integrates the function of protecting geological relics and sites and providing recreation. After seven year's gestation, the World Geopark selection work was launched February this year. The "World Geopark" list is expected to come out next year when the 2004 Scientific Board Meeting of International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) was held in Paris in February.
 
At present, more than twenty geological parks in China have been chosen. Among them Mount Huangshan of Anhui Province, Mount Lushan of Jiangxi Province, Mount Yuntai of Henan Province, Stone Forest of Yunnan Province, Danxia Mountain of Guangdong Province, Zhangjiajie of Hunan Province, as well as Wudalianchi (a famous volcanic scenic spot of five joining molten lava lakes) of Heilongjiang Province and Songshan Mountain of Henan Province have been nominated as candidates for the "World Geopark List".

Professor Zhao Xun, a member of the UNESCO consultant specialists group for geopark program, said that the geopark program will protect geological relics, renovate the geological environment, rehabilitate the geological ecology, and help the prevalence of geo-scientific knowledge. Geological tours, developing local specialties economy, solving employment problems and boosting the construction of the local civilization are also included as positive impacts of the listing, he said. A geological park integrates functions and feasibilities of making use of treasured geological relics, further contributing to the development of the local economy.

According to Zhang Jiajian, head of the Mount Lushan Scenic Area Administration, the "Geological Tour" project will definitely be crucial for creating local economic growth, if proper advantage of unique resources is taken. This is relevant to both geological relics and superior geologic environments. The "Scientific Mount Lushan Tour" has greatly benefited the local community so far, since the Mount Lushan national geological park was founded in 2001. About 1.275 million travelers have visited the mountain since 2002. The revenue of local government was raised 23 percent over that of the previous year and employment in the service sector achieved 50 percent.

(China.org.cn by Wang Ruyue, November 18, 2003)