A dinosaur fossil found in Nuoshui River geopark.[Photo provided to China Daily]

The poem tells about the roads in Nanjiang becoming muddy and stranding travelers after a heavy rain more than 1,100 years ago, an issue that remained unchanged until China started implementing its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s.

While every village is now connected by road, Nanjiang, which belongs to the Qinling-Dabashan Mountain Area, a former key area for poverty alleviation as identified by the central government, was once one of the least accessible areas in Sichuan.

Just as the late Chairman Mao Zedong described in a poem, that only on the steep peaks can one get infinite beautiful scenery, Nanjiang possess superb mountain scenes, including those in the Mount Guangwu and Nuoshui River Geopark.

Covering 1,818 square kilometers, the geopark which covers Nanjiang and its neighboring Tongjiang county boasts karst formations, karst caves, 2,104 species of rare plants and 322 species of rare animals.

Beeches, known as a living fossil, have a distribution area of more than 70 square kilometers in the geopark which is China's largest preservation area of the tree species.