The Danxia formation is situated roughly 600 miles west of Shanghai, in the Gansu province of China.
They stretch for hundreds of miles, covering almost 10% of mainland China’s surface area. Some of these regions are now UNESCO Geoparks, spared from development. As tourist hotspots, this UNESCO designation also means that visitors will be better managed to protect these precious and unusual structures.
The Danxia formations consists mostly of red-coloured sandstones, siltstone, shale, mudstone, and conglomerates of largely Cretaceous rocks. In Chinese, Danxia refers to the “reddish rays” or “rosy clouds” at sunset and sunrise.
The colours were formed as strips of sandstone — laid down by rivers and streams 80 million years ago — were compressed over millions of years.
Around 23 million years ago, the continental crust in this region was lifted up as the Himalayas shifted. This uplift was the birth of Danxia formations.
And over millennia, the relatively soft rocks slowly eroded to create the undulating vistas we see today. This slow erosion also created vast networks of deep caves.
