Late autumn at Jingpohu Global Geopark in Mudanjiang, NE China

Aerial photo taken on October 23, 2021 shows the composite volcanoes in the Jingpohu Global Geopark in Mudanjiang, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/ Han Xu)

The Jingpohu Global Geopark is located in the southwest of Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. In 2015, the park was designated as a UNESCO Global Geopark, where the hyaline Jingpo Lake, the breathtaking Diaoshuilou waterfalls, underground crater forest and lava cascade could be found.

The Jingpo Lake experienced many volcanic eruptions in the last 12,000 years and was formed when magmatic rocks blocked the flow of the Mudanjiang River. It is the largest alpine lava barrier lake in China and the second largest in the world. With 12 craters in total, the volcanic geological heritage in the park is one of the most significant volcano fields in Eastern China and has great scientific significance to research on structural evolution of the Cenozoic in Eastern China.

Over the past thousands of years, the area has formed its unique fishing and hunting culture. The spectacular winter fishing event each year is one of the main attractions of the park, carrying forward the development of local tourism, culture and aquaculture, and forming a special development landscape of “tourism + leisure fishing”.