Dengfeng historic monuments and Danxia landform added to World Heritage list
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has decided at its 34th meeting in Brazil to add the historic monuments of Dengfeng and the Danxia landform to the World Heritage list. To find out more visit the CCTV9 Special Feature.
The historic monuments of Dengfeng are situated in and around Songshan (Mount Song) in Henan Province in central China. Songshan, known in Chinese as Zhongyue, is one of the five sacred mountains in China. The monuments consist of 13 ancient structures and sites including the Shaolin Temple and Pagoda Forest that we visited during our 2009 trip to Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang Provinces – read the story and see the pictures.
The Danxia landform consists of red sedimentary rock located across six Chinese provinces. It is characterised by spectacular cliffs and a range of erosional landforms, including dramatic natural pillars, towers, ravines, valleys and waterfalls. These rugged landscapes have helped to conserve sub-tropical broad-leaved evergreen forests, and host many species of flora and fauna, about 400 of which are considered rare or threatened. For some pictures see this slideshow on the Sina website (click on the photos to advance the slideshow).
For a full list of World Heritage properties in China visit the UNESCO World Heritage website. West Lake in Hangzhou city, which we also visited on our 2009 trip, is planned for nomination for World Heritage listing next year.