Zhangye Danxia

Rock FormationsGansu,China

Desert hills in northwestern China striped rust-red, cream and grey-green in diagonal bands, walked on boardwalks and best seen glowing red at sunset.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

The mildest, wettest stretch — and the colours at their best: brief summer downpours rinse dust from the mineral bands and leave them glowing in the clearing sun. The gates are open long enough now to reach both the sunrise and the sunset platforms.

Year-round The rainbow-striped hills are here year-round, richest at dawn, dusk and just after rain; summer, June to September, is the mildest season to visit.

Zhangye Danxia is a range of desert hills in Gansu province, in northwestern China, striped in diagonal bands of rust-red, cream, yellow and grey-green, and the stripes are so regular and so bright that the hills look painted. They are the floors of ancient lakes. Layers of sand and silt settled while dinosaurs were alive, each in a different chemistry: where the mud held iron that had rusted it baked red and orange, where the iron stayed unoxidised it turned green, grey or cream. The beds were laid flat, then tilted on end when the mountains rose, and the desert wind and rare rain stripped them into ridges that show the stripes running diagonally up their flanks. Boardwalks and stairways climb to viewing platforms on the ridges, and from the edge of the walkway the bands resolve into fine grains of mudstone, each one a slice of lake floor. The colour depends on the light. In the flat glare of midday the hills are pale and dusty; as the sun drops its low light rakes across the ridges, the red bands deepen to ember while the shadows pick out every layer, and the crowds gather on the sunset platform for the hour when it happens. The best of all is rarer: the short window after a summer storm, when the sun breaks through and strikes the still-wet rock and the reds and greens saturate far beyond any dry afternoon. The park is a geopark, not a World Heritage Site, though it is often called one; the Danxia landform, named after a mountain in southern China, is a Chinese term for red sandstone landscapes, and this is the most colourful of them. The hills stand on the edge of the Hexi Corridor, the old Silk Road route between China and the west, and the city of Zhangye was a stop on it. Zhangye Danxia is a landscape people come to for a single hour of light, and the hills earn it.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The platforms each face a different way — 4 and 5 are set up for sunrise, platform 1 for sunset, so plan your loop around the light you want.
The park shuttle is the only way around — cars stop at the gate and the loop runs one direction, so take every shot you want before boarding the next bus.
There is almost no shade on the hills — summer days bake, so bring a hat, water, and sun cover, especially if you linger for the late light.

Things to do

1
Time your loop for the clearing after a summer storm
Keep an eye on the Gansu forecast and aim for the short window when a passing storm breaks and returning sun strikes the still-wet rock — the iron reds and grey-greens saturate far beyond any dry afternoon. Because the effect fades fast as the hills dry, move briskly between the boardwalk platforms while the colour holds.
2
Wait for the banded hills to glow red at sunset
As the sun drops, its low light rakes across the ridges and the iron-red bands deepen to ember while the shadows pick out every layer. Platform 1 is the one set up for sunset — platforms 4 and 5 face the sunrise instead — so come early and hold your spot before the light peaks.
3
Trace the mineral bands up close
From the edge of the boardwalk the stripes resolve into fine grains of rust-red, cream, and grey-green mudstone, each band a different slice of ancient lake floor. Up close you can see how sharply one colour gives way to the next.