UNESCO World Heritage SiteNational 5A Scenic AreaNorthwest China
Zhangye Danxia National Geopark
张掖七彩丹霞 · Gansu, Zhangye
Striated rainbow mountains of red, orange and yellow layered rock along the Hexi Corridor.
Zhangye Danxia is a geopark of sweeping, multicoloured rock strata where mineral-rich sandstone has eroded into rolling hills banded in red, orange, yellow and grey. Boardwalks and shuttle buses reach viewing platforms that catch the colours best at dawn and dusk, creating one of China's most surreal natural landscapes.
The coloured layers were deposited over about 24 million years in a Cretaceous basin and tilted and eroded into smooth, striated hills. As the type landscape of the Danxia red-bed phenomenon it is part of 'China's Danxia' inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010 (some Danxia components), and a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Day-by-day routes you won't find online — now starting with an 8-day, 1,500 km loop through western Sichuan. New regions are added regularly; tell us where you want to drive next.
