World Natural Heritage: South China Karst

Date of Inscription:2007

Chinese name: Zhong Guo Nan Fang Ke Si Te

English name: South China Karst

Based on the standards C(II)(III)(IV)(VI) for selecting world cultural heritage, the South China Karst was listed in the World Heritage List.

The South China Karst covers 50,000 square kilometers in total. It is scattered mainly in Yunnan Province, Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and contains various karst landforms. Currently, this world heritage consists of three parts, the karst landform in Libo County, the stone forest karst of Yunnan, and the karst landform in Wulong District. The South China Karst shows a humid tropical and subtropical karst kingdom to the world. The stone forest is a great natural phenomenon and one of the world’s international landmarks.

Assessment of the World Heritage Committee:
The South China Karst is incomparable in the world for its extremely various karst characteristics and landscapes. It is the most splendid example in all the tropical and subtropical humid karsts of the world, and therefore has outstanding universal values. According to the application materials and proofs provided by experts, it could be concluded that the Yunnan Stone Forest, as a part of the South China Karst, is one of the best natural phenomenon of the world, one of the best references of the world’s karst landforms of the same kind, and the best example of the world’s stone forest landforms, as well as a typical karst landform.