In this paper, the karst landscapes in Zhijin are generally classified into eight categories: cave, gorge, natural bridge, tiankeng, high fengcong, hill, cuesta and pictographic mountain and hydrological heritage. All of them have been developed in the Lower Triassic marine carbonatite strata and distributed orderly and intensively in such three karst geomorphic units as Zhijindong Cave, Qijiehe River and Dongfenghu Lake, which are relatively separate and complete but closely linked to each other through Qijiehe River. These karst landscapes constitute a majestic, typical, beautiful and precious plateau karst landscape group with caves, gorges, natural bridges and tiankengs at the core. Based on the analysis and investigation about the regional background of the landscape formation in this geopark, it is indicated in the paper that, centered on the evolution of hydraulic connections among these three karst areas, the formation and evolution of Zhijin karst began in Paleogene and went through four stages: initial stage (karst outcrop in Paleogene)〖FY〗embryonic stage (splitaxis discrete islandstyle landscape formation process)〖FY〗significant development stage (principalaxis discrete islandstyle and collective islandstyle landscape formation process) 〖FY〗modern karst stage. During these four stages, different responses occur in the three karst areas: (1) Zhijindong Cave: following the development and evolution of Zhijindong underground river, Zhijindong Cave went through different subsurface karst circulation and development stages: horizontal fissure karst water 〖FY〗 underground river way 〖FY〗 being raised upwards and formed fossil cave/cave landscape development/capturing surface river (ancient Xinzhaihe River) 〖FY〗 largescale development of underground river 〖FY〗 being raised upwards and formed fossil cave/being captured 〖FY〗 smallscale development of underground river/cave landscape development. Accordingly, a grand fourlayer labyrinthlike fossil cave system, Zhijindong Cave system, was gradually formed. There are complete types of secondary chemical sediments, which are elegant and unique in shape and impressive in size. This fossil cave karst area has stopped developing in general. (2) Qijiehe River area: following the development and evolution of Qijiehe River, Qijiehe River area went through several different alternative circulation and development stages of surface and subsurface karst: anisotropic and dispersed surface runoff 〖FY〗 surface river 〖FY〗 underground river 〖FY〗 underground river being diverted/captured 〖FY〗 largescale development of underground river 〖FY〗 diverting/ mutual capturing between surface river and subsurface river. Consequently, karst landscapes including fengcong, cave, gorge, tiankeng and natural bridge distribute in or on both sides of the gorge in an orderly way, which are coexisting and coordinately developing. These surface and subsurface karst develop alternatively in general. (3) Dongfenghu Lake area: following the development and evolution of Liuchonghe River, Dongfenghu Lake area went through longlasting, largescale and highly intensive horizontal—vertical erosion and dissection, leading to the distribution of fengcong, hill, pictographic and cuesta mountain and gorge in and on both sides of its gorge whose top is wider than its bottom. These karst landscapes are coexisting and developing. This surface karst area is still under development in general. (4) The entire Zhoijindong Cave geopark, following the hydraulic connections among these three karst areas, went through four karst development stages, leading to the occurrence of different responses of each karst area inside, and the distinctive Zhijin plateau karst landscape group was thus formed. On the basis of the above discussion, four islandstyle landscape formation mechanisms are put forward, namely, splitaxis type, principal axis type, discrete type and collective type. At the same time, the Zhijin karst landscape formation modes are generalized into the “adjoining islandstyle landscape formation mode” after contrasting with other homogeneous, typical karst area (such as Guangxi Leye, Chongqing Wulong,etc.).