Hezhou Jade Forest

　　Located in Huangtian Town, Babu District, 18 kilometers from downtown, it lies on the same tourist route as Guposhan National Forest Park and Hezhou Hot Springs. The Hezhou Stone Forest scenic area spans 25 hectares, with a total touring distance of about 13 kilometers and over 100 scenic spots. Walking through the forest feels like entering a fairyland, where the wonders of nature leave you in awe, and the legends and stories spanning thousands of years evoke deep emotion.

　　The Hezhou Jade Forest is an extremely rare "jade forest" composed of white marble pillars and stalagmites. It formed over 100 million years ago during the Jurassic period. Due to geological faulting and uplift during the Yanshanian period, long-term karst erosion, localized high-temperature effects, and over 1,000 years of tin mining since the Song Dynasty, the area's strata have exposed stone sprouts, abrupt peaks, dense stalagmites and pillars, sinkholes, and fissures. This has created numerous unique natural landscapes such as the "Thousand-Year Camel," "Sky Corridor," and "One-Line Sky." Standing independently among surrounding limestone mountains, it is hailed by visitors as a "heavenly paradise" and regarded by geologists as a geological miracle.

　　The Hezhou Stone Forest formed over 100 million years ago during the Cambrian period. As time passed and nature transformed, prolonged crustal movements and karst erosion caused the strata here to fracture and uplift, resulting in dramatic geological changes. Yanshanian granite intrusions from Guposhan penetrated the Paleozoic strata, creating altered marbles along the contact zone with thick Devonian limestone layers, along with hydrothermal mineral veins primarily composed of cassiterite, hematite, and vein quartz. Since the Quaternary period, hot and rainy weather has caused the tops of these veins to weather into iron caps, which, along with the vertical joints of the marble, eroded into karst landforms, forming the stone forest buried within the iron caps and weathered red soil. The Hezhou Stone Forest features unique rock composition—unlike other stone forests made of gray rocks, its stones are pristine white coarse-crystal marble. Most pillars, stained black by dried mosses, create a striking contrast of black, white, and gray, adding to its enchanting beauty. Covering approximately 25 hectares, though small in size, its parent range is the vast Guposhan Mountain spanning Hunan, Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces. Thus, it showcases grandeur in miniature, with dynamic and natural forms. The exquisitely crafted stone forest, adorned with green trees and clear waters, features snow-white stone sprouts and stalagmites, jade-like stone peaks and pillars. Countless stone grooves, fissures, pits, caves, bridges, stairs, tables, stools, treasures, birds, and beasts fill the landscape. Here, one can witness the beauty of countless overlapping forms and fulfill dreams of boundless creation.

　　The Hezhou Stone Forest boasts numerous natural attractions, including "Fortune Turning Stone," "Jade Forest Greets Guests," "Three Peaks of Stone Fortress," "Turning Goat of the Immortals," "Peacock Display," "Longevity Mountains and Rivers," "Mirror of Stone," "Three Views from Stone Pavilion," "Sky-Piercing One-Line," "Stone Bridge in the Clouds," "Peach Blossom Spring Beyond the World," and "Mysterious Maze of Stone Arrays." Winding paths crisscross the forest, offering ever-changing views surrounded by mountains and water, embodying the harmony of yin and yang. Several natural platforms within the forest provide serene vantage points where clusters of stone peaks, like hairpins and jade, form exquisite artworks—some resembling murals, others reliefs, intricate close-ups, or sweeping panoramas. The forest’s banyan trees are particularly unique, growing on cliffside stone peaks, some over a thousand years old, appearing ethereal. Their trunks blend with the stone, some resembling flying cranes, others sleeping dragons. The rain scenery in the stone forest is especially magical. Watching the forest from a mid-mountain stone pavilion in the rain offers endless delight—some see "dinosaurs strolling," others "golden monkeys playing in the rain," "peacocks displaying," "eagles spreading their wings," or even "myriad floating life forms." Each person sees what they wish, making the experience wonderfully diverse.