Wudalianchi

Wudalianchi, "the five connected lakes", lies in Heilongjiang province, at the north-eastern tip of China, and protects one of the best-preserved and most recent volcanic fields in the country. Its name describes precisely the phenomenon that defines it: the lava flows dammed the course of the Bei'an River and gave rise to a chain of five linked lakes.

The volcanic field is made up of more than a dozen Strombolian-type cones surrounded by extensive basalt flows. The most recent, from historically documented eruptions in the eighteenth century, preserve intact the surface forms of the lava — ropes, blocks, tunnels and volcanic tubes — which in most volcanic fields are erased by vegetation and erosion. That freshness turns the area into a natural laboratory for studying both volcanic processes and the primary colonisation of sterile ground by life, with an ecological succession that can be followed step by step from the bare flows to the mature forest around them.

Hydrological values add to the geological ones: the mineral springs of Wudalianchi, laden with carbon dioxide and iron from their passage through the volcanic rock, have been known in China for centuries and have supported a substantial spa industry since the twentieth century. The lakes and associated wetlands act as a resting area for migratory waterbirds on the East Asian flyway, and the surrounding boreal forest holds the characteristic wildlife of north-eastern China.