Guifeng (Turtle) Peak

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2011-09-20

Guifeng Peak looks like a giant turtle with its raised head so that's how it got its name.

Guifeng Peak (Turtle Peak) is a national AAAA-level scenic area, world geological park, and a national forest park. It has been submitted for world heritage site listing. It is located in Yiyang county, with an area of 39.3 square kilometers. The Peak looks like a giant turtle with its raised head so that's how it got its name.

Guifeng Peak is a typical example of Danxia geomorphology. It is not only a "natural botanical garden", but also a "natural zoo". It is called a "natural oxygen bar" due to its fresh air and high levels of negative ions. There are many relics from Shang and Zhou dynasties, castle ruins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and ruins of the Ruixiang Temple. It is also the birthplace of Yiyang Opera, one of the four major operas from the Ming Dynasty. Xu Xiake, a great traveler and geographer in the Ming Dynasty, also highly praised Guifeng Peak.

After decades of construction, Guifeng Peak has been upgraded. Nearly 10 million yuan has been invested on tourism infrastructure. The road signs have been refitted, pedestrian lanes and large parking lots have been built, and services have been substantially improved. Guifeng Villa, Guifeng Hotel, Guifeng Service Center, and Guifeng Tourism Product Base have been completed in succession. The management of the scenic spot has been gradually improved as it passed the ISO9001 quality certification system in 2002. The Peak has attracted more than 500,000 tourists each year, a considerable increase compared with 100,000 in the past. Its annual revenue from tourism has exceeded 100 million yuan.

It is not only a "natural botanical garden", but also a "natural zoo".

There are four attractions?in Guifeng Peak scenic area: Four-echo Valley, Splashing Rock, a Thin Strip of Sky, and the Stone that is able to predict rain or shine.

Four-echo Valley is a deep valley surrounded by towering cliffs. The cliffs change the direction of sound transmission and generate reflections. Thus continuous and clear echoes are produced after several reflections. You may hear four echoes if you sing in the valley.

The Four-echo Valley

Splashing Rock is under the Huabi Peak of Guifeng. Huabi Peak is as steep as a cut by a sword. There are beautiful patterns on the peak from over millions of years of erosion. It looks like a giant splash-ink landscape painting from afar. There are drops of water on top of the peak all year round, which look like colorful petals when refracted by the sunlight, providing a spectacular sight.

On the Splashing Rock, there are beautiful patterns on the peak from over millions of years of erosion.

There is a slab of enormous rock under the Jinping Peak of Guifeng. From the side, the gap between the rocks is very narrow. The average distance is only 30 centimeters and the narrowest part is only 20 centimeters. However its total length is 30 meters.

The hundred-year path

The Stone that predicts rain or shine is one of the wonders of Guifeng Peak. It looks like a toad openening its mouth towards the sky. Often in early summer, mists surround the toad before it rains, followed by halos and raindrops. Actually, this phenomenon is easy to explain. Before it rains, the humidity in the woods will increase, which causes mists to surround the Toad Peak. The halos are formed by the refraction of light when it passes through air layers of different densities.?