New sections of South China Karst listed as World Heritage

Additional sections of South China's Karst landscape have just been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Additional sections of South China's Karst landscape have just been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. This comes after the successful listing of China's Grand Canal and the Silk Road in China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan last week.

The newly added South China Karst landscapes are an extension of the first project, which was listed as a World Heritage site in 2007. The extension project includes the four new areas of Gui-lin Karst and Huan-jiang Karst in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Shi-bing Karst in Guizhou Province, and Jin-fo-shan Karst in Chongqing Municipalit. Karst landscapes are formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks, such as limestone and gypsum. South China has the world's most diverse karst landforms.

The Grand Canal spans nearly 18-hundred kilometers and flows through six provinces and two municipalities. It's the longest man-made waterway in the world, and the largest civil engineering project prior to the Industrial Revolution. The Canal is still in use after 24-hundred years, connecting the capital Beijing and the southern economic powerhouse Hangzhou.

The Silk Road was jointly submitted by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The ancient trade route started in China and connected Asia and Europe. It enabled economic, political and culture exchange dating back 2,000 years.