Discover China

There are four well-known mountains in Guangdong that are a great getaway from southern China’s heat humidity at this time of year: Dinghu, Xiqiao, Danxia and Luofu. Find out more in these Shenzhen Daily articles:

• Four best-known mountains in GD (Part I)
• Four best-known mountains in GD (Part II)

The Shenzhen Daily article May Day driving routes profiles three fun driving tours in Guangdong Province – Huizhou peninsula tour, Meizhou cultural tour, and Shaoguan world cultural heritage tour.

China’s Danxia Landform has become the nation’s 8th World Natural Heritage after it was listed on the World Heritage List by the World Heritage Committee at its 34th meeting in Brazil on 1 August 2010.

The Shenzhen Daily newspaper profiles locations where you can see the different geological stages of the Danxia Landform:

• Enjoy views of different stages of Danxia Landform – Part 1
• Enjoy views of different stages of Danxia Landform – Part 2

The English language Shenzhen Daily newspaper has the latest news about Shenzhen and China including business, travel and entertainment updates.

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.