Chapter 5 Shennongjia as a World Attraction

S hennongjia,known as the“Roof of CentralChina,”majestically towering on the 31°N latitude line,is one of the 14 key biodiversity research areas in the world.Here numerous craggy and perilous peaks look like a group of graceful dancing girls wearing green robes,performing an opera of “the World’s Green Miracle.”Shennongjia GlobalGeopark,a rare naturalgeologicalmuseum of the world,has recorded the vicissitude history of the Earth’s crust over the past 1.9 billion years with its nearly 200 geological landscapes of mountain landforms,tectonic geomorphology,water-flow landforms,karst landforms,and glacial landforms.These special landscapes,such as late Precambrian strata,faulted dome,and Quaternary glacialremains have a great significance for scientific research and global correlation.It also attracts more and more attention of the United Nations and many globalgeographicaland geologicalresearch institutions.

云影（張鷹空攝） A lake mirroring the sunset clouds（Photo by Zhang Yingkong）

第五章世界的神農(nóng)架

神農(nóng)架，“華中屋脊”，雄渾地矗立在北緯31度線上，群峰爭艷，像一群身披綠袍的少女，婀娜多姿，長袖善舞，演繹出世界的“綠色奇跡”，成為全球14個生物多樣性關(guān)鍵研究地區(qū)之一。神農(nóng)架世界地質(zhì)公園記載著19億年以來地殼滄海桑田變遷的歷史，有山體地貌、構(gòu)造地貌、流水地貌、巖溶地貌、冰川地貌等地質(zhì)景觀近200處，是世界罕見的天然地質(zhì)博物館。獨(dú)特的晚前寒武系地層、典型的斷穹構(gòu)造、第四紀(jì)冰川遺跡等，具有極高的保護(hù)與科學(xué)價值和國際對比意義，越來越受到聯(lián)合國和世界眾多地理、地質(zhì)研究機(jī)構(gòu)重視。

神農(nóng)之眸(雷振梁攝)An amazing cave(Photo by LeiZhenliang)