Maolan National Park

Maolan National Park lies in Libo County, south of Guizhou Province, southwest China, and encompasses an extensive expanse of pristine and intact karst forests that are accented by freak­shaped rocky peaks and crags. The park is a remote wilderness that is studded with peaks, and is interspersed with waters.

The term "karst" originally referred to the particular karst to­pography unique to the karst region of northwestern Yugoslavia where the karst features were well developed including complicated networks of caves, sinkholes, cracks, springs and subterranean chan­nels primarily in the limestone terrain. Since more than 100 years, the term karst has become a special technical term referring to land­scapes of limestone and similar rocks that have been eroded by acidic groundwater, a dilute solution of carbonic acid dissolving limestone and creating karst formations.

This park is a superb example of karst relief, where the water saturated with organic acids made by decomposing jungle vegeta­tion over a long period of time, gradually dissolved the limestone, thus created the landforms typical of karst as a result. The karst geo­morphology here in Maolan National Park is primarily composed of dolomite, limestone and carbonate rocks, which, acting as the major base, give birth to and support the dense subtropical prime­val forests of different types such as doline forests, depression forests, basin forests and valley forests, that are named for the vari-shaped landforms where they are located. The park's 20,000-hectare total area contains 19,367 hectares of karst forests, making up 92 percent of the total land. The great green luxuriant karst forests are entirely wild and pristine, stretching 80 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, and the karst forest region here is the only area left on e~

where nature's creation remains unspoiled and intact. The concen­trated and relatively stable karst forest ecosystem in this park, therefore, is a world-rare treasure when forests have already disap­peared from all the other karst regions, leaving barren karsts in the other parts of the world.

The park is bristled with connected, cone-shaped sheer peaks, peak groups and peak forests, that are blanketed with flourishing evergreen forests, and all the swamps and wetlands are draped with green vegetation, resembling the surging waves of a vast green sea when overlooking from the air. The forests are so dense that their heavy canopy permits almost no sun-light penetrating to the forest floors, making them dim and silent, prevailing with solitude and serenity; and the heavy canopy permits no clear view up to the peak­tops. Redolent of all the other barren karst areas both in China and the world over, it is really unbelievable that the lush and green for­ests stand out on karst topography. Unlike the other barren karst topography that impresses you with a feeling of bleakness, Maolan karst topography offers a splendid picturesque green landscape, creating refreshing and inspiring atmosphere, and making no dif­ference from a normal primeval forest in appearance at first look.

The karst forests here, however, are a very peculiar type of for­est that shows notable difference from the other types of forests in their ecological environment, characteristics, morphology, flora composition, vertical structure, way of evolution and regeneration of the forest community, even in fauna and in the influence of this kind of forest ecology upon its surroundings.

Doline forests of dense and tall trees towering 30-40 meters, stand in the bottoms of funnel-shaped pits of 100-200 meters deep, measuring 10-200 meters in diameter, where trees and lianas find their places in the crevices of the steep precipices and advance up to the tops of the peaks.

Depression forests grow heartily over the karst cone peaks sur­rounding the large, flat depressions of 100-300 meters deep, mea­suring 200-1,000 meters in diameter, that are surfaced with fertile soil, making them possible for farmlands. Paddy fields encircle the villages, which are bristled with particularly-fashioned wooden buildings, called suspension-cornered buildings, for the local farmers, who still maintain their traditional way of farming and use old-fashioned tillage implements that are quite different from the modern ones. Clear waters from the natural springs and the under­ground streams offer sufficient water supply for the paddy fields. The geoponic landscape and the stunning karst beauty give you a feeling of being at a remote antiquity of geologic age and a worldsaway, a secluded peaceful spot away from the turmoil of the outside world.

Basin forests thrive in the open and flat basins of more than 1 square kilometer in area, that are girded by the peaks and are inter­spersed with underground streams.

Forests also flourish along the valleys, making the valleys look like green corridors. Dense stands interweave the bottoms of the valleys, making them invisible.

An immense array of huge rocks stand in different forms in this park, some stand side-by-side forming a ditch between them; some are arranged in rows; and some piled one upon another. All of them are draped with a great variety of green plants no matter what they look like in appearance. Most of the forests grow along the rock crevices of the precipitous cliffs, atop the summits of the cone peaks, in the dolines, around the depressions and in the basins. The rock crevices commonly measure several meters to more than 10 meters deep, and offer very narrow cracks for trees and other plants to take root and to grow up. The highly developed root sys­tem of the trees is vigorously penetrable. A number of the tall trees spread their roots over one or two big rocks and develop a network of roots around the rocks. Some of the roots plunge into this rock cave and then stretch out of another rock cave. Some small trees have more interesting way of life. Some of them twine around some big trees and send out some branches; some of them take root on the stems of some big trees in which they live; some of them take root in a rock cave and only have a branch stretching out of the cave.

The park is prolific of caves that were hollowed out by running water when the water table was at a high level in the past. They are decorated by magnificent formations of stalactites, stalagmites and dripstone deposits.

Nature crams the peaks with so much greenery. Trees, shrubs and wildflowers extraordinarily abound in glorious variety all over the park, and blooms occur at most of the time with the proper com­bination of moisture and sunlight. Spring is a colorful season, in which wildflowers of azalea, chrysanthemum, lily, orchids and many others carpet the park with a profusion of color, creating lovely masses of golds, yellows, pinks and reds, making the park more bright and beautiful. Ferns and mosses upholster a dank world in the subtropical karst forests, and verdant grasses rug the ground.

The peaks offer vantage points for watching the stunning view-the rising sun whose brilliant rays daub the entire area scarlet, and make the countless dewdrops hanging on tree leaves glittering.