Geotourism gains ground as travelers seek more than scenery

LANZHOU, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- At the Zhangye Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot in northwest China, middle school student Xu Yan held up an English textbook and watched as the image on its cover aligned almost perfectly with the colorful, layered hills before him.

"Seeing it in person gave me a much deeper understanding of this kind of Danxia landform," said Xu, who had traveled from south China's Guangdong Province.

He was one of many visitors who arrived at the scenic spot in Gansu Province during the summer vacation with the same textbook in hand. Matching the textbook's cover image with real-life landmarks has become popular on Chinese social media, but at geological sites, the exercise is also taking on an educational dimension.

Across China, dramatic landforms are increasingly being treated as places to explore and understand, rather than simply photograph. Hiking, field study, camping and science courses are being added to conventional sightseeing, giving rise to a form of travel that asks visitors to "read" the landscape.

The scale is considerable. China has 51 UNESCO Global Geoparks, the largest number in the world. A national report on tourist attractions counted 2,047 A-rated scenic areas centered on geological and geomorphological resources, or 13 percent of all such attractions in the country.

Travel data point to the same trend. Online travel platform Trip.com Group's 2026 summer travel report found growing interest in experiential study tours, while nature exploration ranked among the leading choices for family trips.

At Zhangye, this change can be seen in the form of guided tours that take small groups closer to geological formations, where visitors examine tilted strata and the layers that give the hills their distinctive appearance.

Children on study tours go a step further. Equipped with geological hammers and guided by instructors, they learn how minerals containing iron and manganese contribute to different colors in the landscape. In 2025, Zhangye UNESCO Global Geopark, where the Zhangye Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot is located, received 216 study-tour groups involving 170,000 student visits.

"Visitors are no longer satisfied with conventional sightseeing," said Li Junling, deputy head of the general management department of the scenic spot.

Elsewhere in China, geological attractions are bringing more science into the visitor experience.

At Danxia Mountain in Guangdong, from which the Danxia landform takes its name, geological field routes have been combined with science interpretation. The scenic area works with universities and research institutions to train guides and science-education volunteers, while courses on landform evolution and environmental protection take schoolchildren into the field.

In Chishui, southwest China's Guizhou Province, meanwhile, geological education is paired with hiking and immersive experiences. Visitors can explore red Danxia cliffs, waterfalls and forests, while light-and-sound installations illustrate how the landform evolved over hundreds of millions of years.

Gao Hongshan, a professor at the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, in Gansu, said the significance of such experiences lies in changing how knowledge is acquired.

Allowing visitors to use geological compasses, microscopes and other tools turns abstract concepts into something they can observe and test themselves, he said. Virtual and augmented reality can also be applied to make geological processes easier to grasp.

For geological destinations, however, richer visitor experiences must be balanced with the protection of sensitive geological heritage.

At Danxia Mountain, key field-study routes are confined to controlled areas and separated from sensitive geological formations, while Zhangye limits access to some core areas through small-group tours with designated vehicles and guides.

This is where science education can become part of conservation itself.

Cheng Hongyi, an associate professor at Lanzhou University, said that when visitors understand the scientific value and fragility of geological heritage, conservation can become a voluntary act, rather than a mandate imposed on them, and that is a key value of geological tourism. "Science communication is the soul of geological tourism."

Local people are increasingly benefiting from the geological tourism. Nantai Village, about a 10-minute drive from the Zhangye Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot, now has 128 households engaged in tourism-related businesses. Their per capita annual income stands at approximately 27,400 yuan (roughly 4,054 U.S. dollars), and around 80 percent of that comes from tourism.