Weather in Zhangpu, Zhangzhou, Fujian

A few years ago, I came across an article about coastal volcanic rocks in Geography magazine, which contained pictures of southern suburbs. Those charcoal columnar rocks instantly aroused my curiosity. After doing some homework, I learned that they are located at the seaside in Zhangpu County and will be able to make a trip soon.

I set out from Xiamen with my backpack, took a boat to zhangzhou port, and then took a minibus to the volcanic island scenic spot in Qianting Town, Zhangpu County. Volcano Island Scenic Area is located in Xiangshan Peninsula, which is the closest land to Nanjiao Island.

Nanjiao Island is 6.5 kilometers away from the coast. You will feel that it is not far away. Even when the weather is fine, you can see it from a distance on Xiangshan Peninsula, but it actually takes nearly an hour by boat. Apart from a lighthouse, there are no other artificial facilities on the island. Although it is a part of Zhangzhou Binhai Volcano National Geopark, it is actually not open to tourists. If you are lucky and the weather is good, you can only walk around the island by speedboat at most, and there is basically no possibility of landing on the island. I was also introduced by local villagers and hired a fishing boat to go to the island.

I still remember that in order to land on the island, I curled up in a simple little fishing boat. After an hour of rough waves, I endured the discomfort of seasickness, and finally saw the faint silhouette of Nanjiao Island in the backlight. I am glad that you have come.

? After landing on the island, stepping on the basalt formed by volcanic eruption more than 20 million years ago and looking at the dense stone pillars and cliffs like frozen waterfalls, you can immediately feel a shock. When you know that the whole island is composed of millions of columnar jointed basalt 70 to 130 kilometers underground, and it is tied into an island on such a large scale and exposed to the sea, you will be deeply impressed by the magic of nature.

There are no roads on the island, mostly cliffs like knives and axes. You can only climb on the cracks in the scattered rocks. Shortly after landing on the island, the tide began to rise and soon flooded the beach leading to the other side. So I began to climb to the top of the mountain. Although Nanjiao Island is only a small island with a low altitude, the road to the top of the mountain (if it can still be called a road) is a path with a width of less than 40cm, just like the Zorro Z symbol carved on a steep slope. In addition, due to the mountaineering bag, it is difficult to crawl with heavy load, and almost every time I go up, I have to stop to catch my breath.

It's a pity that I couldn't stay on the island for a long time because of the tide and the urging of the accompanying fishermen (I wanted to take more photos), but this trip is still a valuable experience. I left a selfie for myself before I left, which is the first picture of this article. It contains some desire of mine: to explore a wider world. Our earth needs 4.6 billion years of crustal movement to form such a beautiful and rich vast land today, and there are so many wonderful places waiting for us to experience, so I think life seems to be not enough.