Wangjiegang Park is located in Chancheng District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province. Wangjiegang is a forgotten small volcano about 60 meters high, which has a 52-million-years history. According to the geographical experts, its basalt prismatic joint is scare in our country. From September the 2015, a new park near the sites of Wangjiegang Volcano is open to citizens for free. [1]
Historical origin
editWangjiegang used to be a famous mountain in Foshan. According to the volume of 《佛山忠义乡志》, Wangjiegang was an ancient volcano with a 52-million-years history. Until Qing dynasty, it had been regarded as an important places of interest in Foshan. Because of its unique geographical features, Wangjiegang attracted plenty of people to visit. [2] Another volume of 《南海县志》 recorded the mountain as “高三十余丈，当浈（北江）、郁（西江）二水之衡，孤峙河岸，大富环其麓，山产石如剑戟，然开采则盗频兴，明御史屠应坤奏封之”. [3] It means that Wangjiegang is a great treasure and plays an important role in the history of Foshan.
In 1984，DuXuecheng, an expert in Department of Geology in Foshan Univercity, found Wangjiegang unexpected when doing extracurricular practice with his students. They inspected the small mountain and meanwhile Professor Du was amazed by the textures high up in the mountain. Finally, he was too exciting to make a new discovery of the basalt prismatic joint. He said that he knew this textures only in books but he hadn't seen this geologic structure ever. Because of the special value of the sites，he convened plenty of geologic experts immediately to prospect the mountain. From then on, Wangjiegang has attracted the attention of so many people.
Since Wangjiegang was found an ancient volcano sites, the government of Foshan has paid more attention on it. In 1985，the government closed the quarry near it and set a nature reserve. Nowadays, Wangjiegang becomes a beautiful park and provides people green trees, clear water and nice air. The development of Wangjiegang is not only limited to the hills, it also includes the surrounding regions. There are many places of interest beside it, such as Shakou ecology garden, Dongping river wetland park and the Shakou clough park. Wangjiegang Park, a beautiful scenery and an unique historical spot is appeared to you.
Geography features
editAccording to some information, Wangjiegang is a small hill made of eruption of basalt, one of the rocks for the late third basalt. Although this site is not very big, it's a typical scare treasure in our Guangdong Province, even in China. In order to study the geological structure, the history and ancient geographical environment change of the Pearl River Delta, we need to protect this important scientific sources.[4]
Main attractions
edit
The designer of Wangjiegang Park was inspired by volcanic eruption and magma flow, so he added some volcano elements to his design project. On the whole, the park is divided into 3 functional areas and 3 entrances. As follows, we will focus on some main attractions in Wangjiegang Park.
Central Lake
editWith a volcanic lake about 11000 square meters, Wangjiegang is famous for its 2-kilometrer-long waterfront zone. This centeral lake is the most important places of interest and there is a small path around it. Walking along the lake, people who are interested in volcanos can enjoy the ancient volcanic landscape closely.
Viewing Platform
edit
Viewing Platform is located in Wangjiegang Park. As an important node of the 2-kilometrer-long waterfront zone, the viewing platform is a real urban open space.
Scientific Activities Area
editScientific Activities Area in Wangjiegang Park is an area that provides citizens supporting facilities. People who need a relaxation can enjoy a leisure footway of cobblestone, have a break in landscape recreation pavilions or communicate with others in the gout square. Meanwhile, citizens can also learn some science knowledge here.
Further development
editIn fact, XieRichu, a designer in the City Building Department in Foshan, had already made a wonderful plan at the end of the 20th century. Apart from the central spots, he thought that vacation area, clough area and rural area can be characteristic. In his plan, the vacation area includes international meeting center, noble villa groups, and there are hot spring water skiing field and characteristic gymnasium in the amusement areas. The clough area is not just a water gate but a urban open space. With a lighthouse, people can walk up to watch the tidewater and the other beautiful scenes. The rural area connects pond, chong river and jiang river, so people can enjoy Lingnan features of watery place. [5]
Nowadays, projects of road networks and infrastructures in Wangjiegang Park have finished. Foshan Government and its Building Department pay more attention to the further development of Wangjiegang Park, so a long-term plan is discussed by many experts.
References
edit- ^ The first-stage project of Wangjiegang Park. Zhujiang News. Retrieved Sep. 10, 2015.
- ^ 《佛山忠义乡志》. Volume. Accessed Nov. 18, 2015.
- ^ 《南海县志》. Volume. Accessed Nov. 18, 2015.
- ^ Geography features. Wechat of Zhujiang News. Retrieved Aug. 10, 2015.
- ^ 王借岗风景旅游区规划. 谢日初. 广东园林. Retrieved Sep. 30, 1995.