Sanqingshan Geopark was approved as the National Geopark by Ministry of Land and Resources and started to declare the Global Geopark in September, 2015. March 3, 2007, Sanqingshan UNESCO Global Geopark held the inaugural opening officially.

In 2006, as the application units, Shanqingshan was listed as the application subject of China Global Natural Heritage by Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development while Longhushan was recommended to Ministry of Land and Resources as the application subject of Global Geopark by People’s Government of Jiangxi Province with the consideration of the provincial general situation of tourism development.

 January 2010, Shanqingshan and Kanas of Xinjiang were listed as the application units of 2012 China Global Geopark by Ministry of Land and Resources on the 4th Recommendation Conference of Global Geopark Application Units held in Beijing.   

August 2011, the full set application documents of Shanqingshan were submitted to Ministry of Land and Resources with the approval of People’s Government of Jiangxi Province. October 2011, Shanqingshan Party Committee and Management Committee setup the leading group to do preparations to pass the testing and launched overall works for the application.

November 30, 2011, Shanqingshan opened the special meeting to drive the preparation works and renovation works for the application of Global Geopark and issued .

December 2011, documental materials were submitted to UNESCO to investigate. Because of some reasons, Kanas of Xinjiang couldn’t submit the documents to Global Geopark Network Executive Board of UNESCO, and Shanqingshan became the only application unit in 2012.

 September 21, 2012, Shanqingshan was listed as Member of the Global Geoparks by UNESCO in the 11th Global Geopark Conference held in Aloka of Portugal.

Shanqingshan Global Geopark established the ties of "sister geopark" with Petrified Forest Geopark of Lesvos in Greece in September 2012, and with Lushan Global Geopark on May 31, 2013 and with Zhangjiajie Global Geopark of Hunan Province in China in March 2014; with Villuercas Ibores Jara Geopark in Spain in April 2015, and with Stonehammer Geopark in Canada in August 2015, and with Zhijindong Global Geopark in Guizhou Province of China in October 2015, and with Longhushan Global Geopark in Jiangxi Province in March 2016.

  In September 2017, the extension application of Sanqingshan Geopark was submitted to the UNESCO and the area of the Geopark is 433 km2.