Guangdong Grand Canyon
Guangdong Ruyuan Grand Canyon lies in Dabu Town, 68 kilometers southwest away from Ruyuan County. The Grand Canyon runs through the Dabu Town of Shaoguan and the Boluo Town of Yingde along with beautiful scenes. The total length is 15 kilometers and the depth is more than 300 meters. Originally, the Grand Canyon was just located in a small basin in the ravine. Due to the impact of the Yanshan orogeny, the earth's crust bore the force of block uplift so that some of the blocks sagged to form a rift (graben) which has a history of 10 million years. There are many karst caves in the Grand Canyon because of the limestone landform in Ruyuan. And its landform is similar to that of Danxia Mountain because the formation of limestone is similar to that of red rock.
The Grand Canyon is as fantastic as Mt. Huangshan: the mountains shroud in swirling mist and cloud when raining, which makes it look like a fairyland. And it is as precipitous as Mt.Huashan because of its Thousand-Step Ladder(1386 steps). Moreover, it is as magnificent and beautiful as Zhangjiajie, with deep and serene valley, plenty of hills and mountains, and shinning green grassland.
On the both sides of Grand Canyon is sharp and steep cliff. The rocks exposed in the Canyon are sedimentary rocks formed more than 300 million years ago, which are mainly compact and hard quartzite. Its top is like a large jar with 600 meters width. And Dabu River meandering calmly through southeast to northwest drops suddenly here to form the majestic and heart-shaking waterfall. Under the waterfall is a deep pool which runs along the Grand Canyon into Boluo Town in Yingde, and flows into Beijiang River. About twenty kilometers away from the Grand Canyon, lies Jingfeng Cave which is a rare quartz sandstone cave in China with various patterns and forms of stone. Compared with karst caves, the Cave is different and unique.
Before developed into tourist spot in 1998, a few people set foot in this mysterious canyon except for the staffs of the hydroelectric power station. Nowadays, the Grand Canyon has been carefully exploited and developer built stone paths and bridges at the bottom of the canyon and cable cars in hydroelectric power station.
However, the unexploited areas are more attractive for travelers accustomed to hiking because of its reputation. They go hiking in the mountains and enjoy a round trip between Yingde and Ruyuan, climbing mountains and paddling in the stream in day, while they choose a narrow space to set up a tent and listen to the sound of the river and fall asleep. It seems that only challenging their limits can they reach the harmony between man and nature.
