Qinglan Geopark, the Stone Forest of Raoping’s Hills

青岚 Qīnglán is a rocky valley and geopark in the hills of 饶平县 Ráopíng xiàn, the easternmost county of 潮州 Cháozhōu, and it is a landscape of the strange and the old. The hills here are made of granite that has been weathered for a very long time into a forest of rock: rounded boulders, tall pillars and slabs of stone that stand stacked and balanced, with a narrow canyon, a sinkhole and a cool green floor beneath. It is marketed as a 地质公园 dì zhì gōng yuán, a geopark, and it is a place to see a different kind of country from the tea hills and the coast, a dramatic, quiet, almost otherworldly landscape.

The rock is the attraction. The granite has been carved by wind and water over millions of years into the shapes you see, and the park has set a boardwalk and a path through the best of it. You walk through a narrow canyon where the rock walls rise on either side, past boulders that sit one upon another and look as though they might fall, and through a cool, shaded section of the valley floor that is green with moss and ferns. There is a sinkhole, a great depression in the rock, and the whole place has a calm, ancient feel, with the rock doing the talking.

The park is not huge, and you can see the main features in a couple of hours, which is about right for a landscape of this kind. It is a short drive up into the hills from the coast, and the air is cooler and the noise is the wind and the water rather than the road. It is a good place to come for a half-day away from the plains, and it photographs extremely well, with the tall rock and the narrow canyon giving a sense of scale. Come in the cooler months for the clearest walking, and bring shoes with decent grip, because the stone can be damp.

Practicalities

Tickets. The geopark charges an entrance ticket, in the region of ¥50 to ¥80, which covers the canyon, the boardwalk and the sinkhole area. There may be a separate charge for a shuttle to the far end on a busy day.

Opening hours. The park is open roughly 08:30 to 17:30, with entry not allowed after the middle of the afternoon, as the walking takes a couple of hours and the light goes early among the rocks.

Getting there. 青岚 is in the hills of 饶平县, reached by road from 饶平 town in about forty minutes and from 潮州 city in about an hour and a half. There is no rail station at the park; the high-speed 饶平站 Ráopíng zhàn is the nearest, from which you hire a car or a taxi.

Closing day. The geopark is open every day of the year with no weekly closing day. The canyon and the walking paths may be closed for safety during heavy rain, when the rocks are wet and the valley floor floods.

Getting there: 饶平 town is the base, about forty minutes by road, and 饶平站 Ráopíng zhàn on the high-speed coastal line is the rail gateway; from there a car or taxi up into the hills is the way in.

flowcloud would say that a landscape of stone worn into strange shapes over millions of years, then walked with a boardwalk, is a place that makes the human timescale feel small, and that there is a great deal to be said for standing among rocks that do not care how long you have been there.