Tourists flocking to Fengkai Park
The Fengkai National Geopark in South China's Guangdong Province received an unprecedented number of visitors during the May Day Golden Week this year, the county's tourism bureau said.
The geopark received more than 140,000 tourists during the week, an increase of 8.3 percent over the same period last year.
Most of the visitors came from Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhuhai, and more than 100 tourist groups visited the geopark every day during the week.
As the nation's first geopark named after a county, Fengkai geopark has received an increasing number of tourists in the past years, especially from the cities on the Pearl River Delta.
To attract more visitors, the geopark authorities offered a new type of tourism program, called "ecological camping", during the golden week.
They established several camping areas in the major scenic spots and rented out tents to interested tourists wanting to spend a night in the mountains.
Many tourists said they appreciate "ecological camping" because it is not only relaxing and interesting but also provides conveniences for many tourists who fail to reserve hotel rooms during peak season.
The county's tourism bureau said the steady rise in the number of tourists shows that the geopark's unique geological wonders and rich cultural background have won wider public recognition.
Fengkai, once known as Guangxin, is the birthplace of the Lingnan culture (the culture of South China) as well as the Guangdong dialect (Cantonese).
The geopark is well-known in the Pearl River Valley, with its abundant geological resources, such as karst and granite landforms, sandshale landforms, human fossils (from the Old Stone Age) and geological disaster relics.
It is also a picturesque place with uncommon scenic beauty, including huge rocks, strangely shaped peaks, deep caves, vast forests, green mountains and raging rivers.
The geopark, located in the northwest of Guangdong Province, became a national geopark with approval from the Ministry of Land and Resources on August 31,2005.
(China Daily 06/15/2007 page20)
