The park is located in Zanhuang County, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, China, in Asia. Administratively, it covers four townships and towns: Zhangshiyan Town, Xuting Town, Yuantou Town, and Huangbeiping Township, with a total area of 451.6 km2. The park borders Xiyang County, Shanxi Province to the west, Jingxing County and Yuanshi County to the north, Zhangleng Township, Zanhuang County seat, Nanqinghe Township, and Xiyangze Township of Zanhuang County to the east, and Lincheng County and Neiqiu County of Xingtai City to the south. The park is about 380 km northeast of Beijing, the capital of China, and about 90 km from downtown Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province.
Geographic coordinates of the park: 114°01′27″–114°23′53″E, 37°26′12″–37°46′16″N.
Elevation range: 286–1,774 m above sea level.
1. The fold/thrust structures and ductile shear zones of the Neoarchean orogenic belt in the North China Craton represent an ancient suture zone, providing strong support and evidence for in-depth research on global geology and plate tectonic theory.
The fold/thrust structures and ductile shear zones exposed in the Tiantai Lake area in the eastern part of the park belong to the middle section of the eastern margin of the Central Orogenic Belt of the North China Craton. They consist of multiple Alpine-type near-horizontal nappe stacks, recording significant crustal strain and displacement, and preserving abundant Precambrian petrological features similar to those of modern plate tectonics. These nappes originated in an intra-oceanic arc forearc setting and were accreted to the eastern continent during arc-continent convergence around 2.5 billion years ago through crustal-scale tectonic displacement. They reveal the life cycle of early Earth subduction zones and oceanic crust, and demonstrate the tectonic evolution process of the Precambrian Earth. Their unique geological structures and petrological characteristics provide empirical support for the uniformitarian hypothesis of Precambrian global tectonic regimes, proving that early Earth orogenic events had a scale, evolution, and duration similar to modern plate tectonic systems. This geological heritage provides valuable scientific evidence for understanding early Earth tectonic evolution and geodynamic processes, and is of great significance for the continuous deepening and improvement of global geology and plate tectonic theory.
2. The unconformity surface of the Lüliang Movement records the transition between land and sea in the North China Block and serves as a concrete example of continental-oceanic transformation in the global tectonic system.
The unconformity surface of the Lüliang Movement is exposed in the Baima’nao area in the western part of the park. It shows an obvious angular unconformity between the Paleoproterozoic metamorphic rocks of the Gantaohe Group and the overlying Mesoproterozoic sandstones of the Changcheng System, representing the contact relationship between the craton basement and its cover. Influenced by the Lüliang Movement, the Gantaohe Group underwent metamorphism, deformation, erosion, and planation. A basal conglomerate of the Lüliang surface was formed at the top of the Gantaohe Group, serving as a representative horizon of the Lüliang Movement surface. This unconformity is an important tectonic episode marking the boundary between the Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic, and provides key evidence for the transition from a terrestrial environment to a marine environment. This geological heritage is an important marker of tectonic evolution and sedimentary environmental change, recording crustal tectonic movement and evolution. It can be internationally compared with major tectonic events such as the Hudsonian Orogeny in North America and the Karelian Orogeny in Europe.
3. The Zhangshiyan landform is one of China’s three major sandstone landforms, clearly displaying the four stages of landform development: infancy, youth, maturity, and old age.
The Zhangshiyan landform developed in Mesoproterozoic strata and was mainly formed by tectonic uplift and gravitational collapse. It is a clastic rock landform represented by giant long cliffs, stepped cliff galleries, box-shaped cliff valleys, amphitheater-like valleys, canyons, mesa mountains, ridge clusters, and peak pillars. Together with the Danxia landform and Zhangjiajie landform, it is known as one of China’s three major sandstone landforms. In 2009, it was shortlisted for the “Major Discoveries of Chinese Geography in the Past Century,” and Zhangshiyan Scenic Area is the discovery site and naming place of this landform. This geological heritage records the geomorphic evolution of the Taihang Mountains and even the entire North China region since the Tertiary, as well as the strong uplift of the mountains since the Quaternary. The spatial combination of various landform bodies reveals the unique development model of the Zhangshiyan landform—wedge-shaped lateral cutting and horizontal undercutting—innovating and enriching modern geomorphic development theory. The Mesoproterozoic Changcheng System sandstones contain complete, typical, and well-preserved bedding and bedding-plane structures, which are rare in the world and have extremely high research value. They clearly display different stages of landform development—infancy, youth, maturity, and old age—making the area an ideal place for studying and investigating the relationship between geological structures and geomorphic landscapes.
March 28, 2025