5.0

Danxia Landforms or commonly known as Rainbow Mountains in Zhangye, Gansu Province, China

Silk-Road3_014

Sunrise shoot at Station 4.

 

PhotoSafari has organised a photosafari adventure trip to visit this natural magnificent landforms from 18th to 28th October 2014. We had to visit this place after we saw the unbelievable pictures that were circulating on the web space.

The journey to visit the Zhangye National Geopark was quite tedious for some. Our group flew into Xian, China from Kuala Lumpur. We caught the early morning flight to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province. Our flight was delayed for more than an hour. We were supposed to catch a train from Lanzhou to Zhangye. Sad to say we missed our 3 o’clock train. We had to take another train at 4:45pm to Zhangye which was about 5 hours away. We were only able to secure a few tourist class coaches and half of our members had to put up with the “catlle” class meant for the locals. I took the opportunity to join the “cattle” class, it was a great experience meeting up with local passengers. Well that is another story. We spent a night at Zhangye and early the next morning at 5:30am we drove to the Zhangye National Geopark which was about an hour away. We were among the earliest to arrive for the sunrise shoot.

The National Geopark provide internal coaches to ferry  visitors around the park. It runs in a circuit stopping at stations 1 to 4. One can disembark at any one of the stations and stay as long as one likes and then hop onto the coach to reach another station.

The best time to shoot this landform is around 10am. Some of these landforms are in the shadows at sunrise.

The best time to shoot this landform is around 10am. Some of these landforms are in the shadows at sunrise. Please note that the walkway reserved for the park officials on the left side for scale.

Danxia Landforms (Rainbow Mountains)

Danxia Landforms or commonly know as Rainbow Mountains is located at Nantai Village and Aohe Village in Gansu Province covering a land area of 78.57 Km2. The hills consist of thin layers of mudstone, sandy mudstone and shale formed during the Mesozoic Era about 135 to 65 million years ago. The change of the sedimentary and diagenetic environment caused the soil to oxidise. The process is called an oxidising-reduction process. Wind erosion shaped the landforms exposing the color layers of earth. The environment is rather fragile. In some places, the colourful layer is only 10mm thick.

Magnificent colors of the rainbow mountains

Magnificent colors of the rainbow mountains

 

A panoramic view of the  rainbow mountains at station 3

A panoramic view of the rainbow mountains at station 3

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *