Five Joined Lakes National Park

Situated at the City of Five Joined Lakes, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China, and covering an area of 70,000 hectares, Five Joined Lakes National Park is a curious and interesting place, that boasts the largest concentration of volcanoes among the chain of volcanoes in the northeastern China and the most unique and attractive volcanic landscape in China.

The park rests in a vast expanse of lava field and is named for its five joined lakes in the Bai River (White River), which was blocked up by the rubbles coming down with the lava flow from the 1719­1721 volcanic eruptions, over 270 years ago.They thus created such serene bodies of waters as the five lakes, that look separate from each other on the surface but actually they are joined beneath. Stretching from north to south between the volcanic cones and dif­ferent in size, the largest one of the fives lakes covers an area of 8.2 square kilometers, with water 10 meters deep. The mirror-like lakes perfectly reflect the blue sky overhead and the volcanic cones around them, doubling nature's beauties.

The past volcanic eruptions built up the 14 volcanic cones, that are composed of accumulations of cinders and ash. Measuring 65­160 meters in height, they stand over and dot the vast expanse of barren tableland, which is a huge lava bed stretching 36 kilometers long from east to west, and 25 kilometers wide from south to north, covering a startling area of 600 square kilometers. Among the 14 volcanic cones, the 12 outermost volcanic cones are the oldest geological structures, that were formed in the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period according to the scientific surveys. They are in the form of circular cones but they have varied shapes on their summits, resembling mushrooms, balls or pen racks and so on.

The five lakes between the volcanic cones bisect the 14 volcanic cones into 2 groups. The Mount Wei, the Mount Molabu, the West Longmen Mountain, the East Longmen Mountain, the Mount Xiaogu (or the Mount Beiying ), the East Jiaodebu Mountain and the West Jiaodebu Mountain stand in the east. The Mount Huoshao, the Mount Laohei, the Mount Bijia, the Mount Wohu,the Mount yaoquan, the Mount North Gelaqiu and the Mount South Gelaqiu tower in the west. The Mount Laohei soars to 515.5 meters above sea level with 1,600 meters of diameter at the base and 136 meters of internal depth; the Mount Huoshao towers to 392.6 meters above sea level with 800 meters of diameter at the base and 63 meters of internal depth. Over­looking from the air, the 14 volcanic cones look like an array of grids with well-arranged chess pieces.

The stone dragon is a 17-kilometer lava bed of the molten lava and debris from the eruptions on the Mount Laohei and the Mount Huoshao running southward along the banks of the Bai River. It looks like a huge, lying dragon, from which derived its name, mak­ing it one of the prominent figures in the park. The molten lava, in­fluenced by the changing heat, blast, viscosity and other factors during its flow, became moulded into different tiny landforms, such as pythons of several meters to 20 or even 30 meters in length, coiled and twisted stone ropes, logs, elephant trunks stretching from an upland down to a cave as though seeking for water, waterfalls de­scending over a drop of 4-5 meters long, and bread-shaped lava of 0.2-0.5 meter above the surface and 0.5-1.5 meters in diameter .

The sea of Gratesque Rocks, or called the Waved Lava, is a vast expanse of area blanketed by thick layers of volcanic materials. It was created when the rock flow was propelled by the sudden magmatic impetus of the inside layers, and the surface layer was racked by violent churning and splitting. Covered by countless oddly shaped jumbled mass of black rocks, the remains are as barren as when they came into being. Billowy, jagged and sharp, the rocks can cut through visitors' shoes or even cut in their fleshes therefore the best option is to only stand by them and take a side view of them. Looking at the sea of black rocks, you may have the feeling of being in a world that would seem lifeless, harsh and forbidding.

Trumpet-shaped formation around the vent, resembling a morn­ing glory, generally measuring 1-3 meters in diameter, was formed when lava and debris spewed out through the vent continuously, fell back, piled up and later solidified around the vent. Hundreds of these gas vents, usually standing 2.5-3.5 meters high, can be found in this park.

The water Curtain Cave and the Farry Grotto, stretching 200- 300 meters long and 2-10 meters wide, in the north of the Mount Laohei, are huge underground passages with a forest of stalactites, which were formed when the surface lava cooled but the underly­ing lava was still boiling. They offer mysterious labyrinths, which would make visitors get lost if they walk on their own.

The eruptions of the volcanoes also elaborated some other gro­tesque figures such as volcanic bullets like spheres, spindles, taffy twists, pears, flat and round cakes, and a vast expanse of volcanic cinders and debris of less than 20 millimeters in diameter, which is called a sea of desert. These were formed by some fragments of charred lava when they were carried high into the air with the boiling-hot air currents and then fell down on the ground during the volcanic eruptions. These so called" black sands" are light enough for wind to toy with.