The riverbed of the Baishuiyang River is basal rock wide and flat with a length of 2 km. The  river is divided into upper, middle and lower parts. The widest riverbed is in the middle part and is  182 m in width. It forms a vast shallow water square with an area of near 40,000 m 2 and therefore  is a wonderful place to enjoy with water.Water flow erosion is very strong in the Baishuiyang and  therefore the landforms in the area are distinguished. The main flow erosion-generated landforms  include flat bedrock-formed riverbed, erosional terrace, wall-curved river bank, rocky ripple marks on bedrock, water erosion-generated trough, flow side erosion-generated cave, and pothole. Therefore, the Baishuiyang River is a wonderful place for scientific popularization and  understanding the importance of geological processes.

This smooth tabular rock has many holes  and troughs on its surface, which have different  size and depth. Someone might have already  thought that the tabular rock is quite similar  with the riverbed of the Baishuiyang River. Yes,  it is really the old bed of the Baishuiyang River.  The tectonic movement (about 2.6 million  years ago) caused the slow uplift of the earth  crust in the area and thus the rise of the  riverbed of the Baishuiyang River. The later  down cutting of the water has made a new riverbed for the river. While, the old riverbed now is  exposed and is in a level 1.5-2 m higher than the new one. You can image the great power of the  water erosion just from this case.

Why is the level of the rock platform by  the Xianpa River higher than that of the current  riverbed? Geologically, this platform, together with the above sediments, is called river base terrace. Actually, it was once the riverbed of the  Xianpa River in the ancient time. Later tectonic movement (2.6 million years ago) has led to the  gradual uplift of the earth crust in the Baishuiyang area. The long-term down-cutting erosion  resulted in the lowering and narrowing of the riverbed. Today’s level of the riverbed is 1.5-2 m  lower than that of the original one. The remained old riverbed became this flat river terrace.  Seeing this you cannot help exclaiming the power of the geological process.

Do you know what the collapsed rock  block is? Vertical joints and fractures have  developed in the volcanic rocks. The whole  rocks in the cliff wall often collapsed and fell  along the planes of break structures due to  gravitation process. The collapsed rock blocks  accumulated on the base of the cliff or on the  gentle slope face. These are the collapsed rock  blocks. This lucky peach standing by the  Xianpa River is a huge collapsed rock block of  volcanic agglomerate fallen from the opposite cliff wall. It looks just like a huge peach bringing  lucky to the guests.

This widespread flat rocky riverbed with  covering clear shiny ripple water is the famous  scenery, Baishuiyang River, a shallow water  square. The formation of the scenery is  contributed to the multi-geological factors,  such as rock attitude, lithology, geological  structure, hydrological dynamics, etc. The  Baishuiyang riverbed is composed of  orthophyre, which intruded along volcanic bedding near the ground level during the magma  activity about 100 million years ago and formed a tabular subvolcanic rock body parallel to the  ground. The rock is quite integral and very uniform. With the uplift of the earth crust and the down cutting of the river, the orthophyre has  exposed. Dense horizontal joints parallel to the bedding and multi-directional vertical joints and  fractures have developed in the orthophyre. The weathering and water erosion have flaked away  the rocks along the horizontal joints and gradually formed this flat rocky riverbed. The continuous uplift of the earth crust since 2.6 million years ago and long-term water  erosion and down cutting resulted in the lowering of the river base. The old riverbed became the  river base terrace lying on the two sides of the river. Later, the down cutting power of water  became weak due to the stable earth crust and a very slow rise of the Baishuiyang area. The weak  water down cutting could only produce water-eroded trough and pothole. Instead, the water lateral  erosion was dominant at this stage. The strong lateral erosion has formed wide concaved  riversides at the cross of the two brooks and in some portions of the up- and down-river. The  extending of the riverbed is consistent with the tabular orthophyre body, forming this wide, flat  and mirror-like Baishuiyang scenery.

How was this deep groove formed? Initially, the riverbed developed a group of N40 °  E-oriented fissures due to the tectonic movement of the Earth’s crust. Because the fractured portion is a weak park of the rock, long-term  water erosion has resulted in the formation of  this deep groove in the fractured part of the  riverbed, 1-1.5m wide.

This is a small waterfall. A group of  NW-oriented joints developed in the  bedrock-formed riverbed. The long-term flow  erosion along the joints has formed a 40m-long,  1m-high step. The water falling from the step forms  this cascade.

During volcanic eruption, a great number  of gases accumulated on the top of underground  molten magma. This can cause a huge blast due  to great pressure. After the blast, the remained  magma has cemented the broken pieces of the adjacent rocks. Suchformed rock has broken sharp  fragments embedded in the cement that has the same composition as the fragments.

The gallery bridge in wood arch is the assembling of bridge, corridor, pavilion and temple  into an organic whole, it need not any iron nail, link-up each parts only by the wooden tenon and  mortise, that shown the precise design of  construct craft, is unique in the world. The  gallery bridge in wood arch recorded the  magnificent articles of Chinese bridge history. In October 2009, the Traditional design and  practices for building Chinese wooden arch  bridges was inscribed on the List of Intangible  Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent  Safeguarding UNESCO.

How were these shuttle-shaped troughs on  the riverbed formed? The NE-strike fractures  and NW-strike fractures are both developed in  the rocks of the riverbed due to tectonic  movements. Some of the fractures have the same  directions with the water current and thus have  undergone long-term water erosion. This formed  concave surfaces on the soft portions of the  riverbed, which gradually become these  water-eroded troughs.

The waterfall is situated at the junction of the middle and lower Baishuiyang River where the  river-course is relatively narrow and water flow is thus concentrated. The relative strong water  erosion results in the formation of an inclined bedrock-composed riverbed, about 50m long and  over 100m wide, which looks just like a huge sliding board. You can slide from the ramp without  any harm to your naked skin. It is a scared but no dangerous play. What a fantastic sight it is.

Why does the Bird’s-nest Rock have five concaved caves at the cliff base and show a wavy  appearance in its cliff-wall? The lateral erosion of water formed these wavy appearance and  horizontal caves. During the stage when the earth crust was stable, the water erosion was  characterized by lateral erosion, which concaved the cliff wall. While during the uplift stage of the  earth crust, the down cutting of river has brought the lateral erosion and so produced concave  marks to a different level of the wall. The lateral erosion-induced concave marks of different  levels representing different stages made the cliff-wall have a S-shaped wavy appearance. The five  semi-circle concave caves arranged side-by-side at the base of the cliff are the horizontal caves  formed by the long-term lateral erosion of water during stable earth crust stage, which look like  girl’s skirt and thus are also called Multi-folded Rock.

How was this Gauze-cap-like Rock  formed? The rock originally developed many  NE-strike joints, fractures and faults. In the  places where fractures and faults were densely  distributed, the rocks were broken up and  washed away by water current. While the rocks  were kept in the place where fractures and  faults were rare. With the uplift of the earth  crust, down-cutting erosion of water and  lowering of the river base, the remained rocks has formed a rock wall on the middle of the  riverbed, extending in the direction parallel to the water flow. The further down-cutting and lateral  erosion of the water have narrowed and modified the rock wall into an isolated rock pillar, which  became a firm rock in the mid-river.

The volcano eruption-formed rocks are  different in composition, texture, and the  development of joints and fissures. Therefore, they have different behaviors under water erosion,  gravitational collapse, and weathering processes. The rocks that can resist the weathering form the  peaks. A peak cluster is composed of several  pillar-like, fort-like peaks that are connected on  their bases.

The bamboo forest is the community dominated by single species. It is widespread in  subtropics region of China. The moso bamboo forest is the biggest among them, and generally distributes below the elevation 900 meter. In some places, the bamboo mixes the junction with other  trees.

Why does the riverbank here have a curved  appearance? The tectonic movement has led to  the development of joints and fractures in the  volcanic rocks that construct the riverbank. Later weathering has further enlarged the joints and  fractures and formed many sheet tensile-fractures on the rock surface. The long-term water lateral  erosion has caused the flake off of the rocks in the riverbank wall and formed this curved  riverbank, which is a distinct landform sight.

Rocks often fall off from the joints and  fissures of the steep cliff due to gravitation.  These fallen rocks are called collapsed rock  body. Here is a so-formed collapsed rock body.  The big rock block has a volume of 6×5×3 in meter, while the small one is 2×1×1 meter. They are  scattered on the river sides.

How were these ripple marks on the  riverbed formed? The attrition between  shallow water flow and the riverbed can form  crescent flow-waves that are vertical to the  flow direction. The flow-wave has a  characteristic that the wavetrough is more  powerful than the wave-peak in making  down-cutting erosion. The erosion on the  riverbed is mainly performed by flow waves  other than carried sand and mud because the  shallow water can only carry limited solid materials. After such long-term erosion, the base rocks  of the riverbed became concaved along the troughs of the wave. This gradually formed many  water erosion-induced ripple marks on the riverbed, having a shape similar with the flow-wavy. In  addition, the development of the crossed NE- and NW-strike faults in the riverbed also helps the  formation of the ripple marks. The ripple marks are linked end-by-end, just like many regularly arranged huge fish scales in  the clear water. It looks like a huge auspicious dragon swimming with the wave and welcoming  the guests.