Why is Danxia Mountain special
Located in the northeast of Shaoguan city in Guangdong Province, Danxia Mountain is called Red Stone Park of China for the brilliant red color, and the red stone group covering a total area of 282 square miles.
The Danxia Mountain Area was originally a huge inland basin between 140 million years and 70 million years ago. Then, there was severe uplifting of the area around the basin, which resulted in the development of the deep red bed on the basin after the accumulation of a mass of detrital matter. In 70 million years ago, the red bed was gradually eroded because of the earth's crust uplifting. In the past 6 million years or so, the basin had intermittently uplifted by one meter per 10 thousand years while being down-cut by flowing water. Finally, a group of red mountains took shape out of the red bed, which is named as Danxia Mountain Area at present.
Formed of the red sandy rock, Danxia Mountain area is characterized by the red steep cliffs with precipitous landform of even peak, sheer body and flat valleys. In geography, it is also the name place of Danxia Landform, which refers to the sort of landform similar to the Danxia Mountain. Since 1988, Danxia Mountain has been successively appointed as National Scenic Spot, National Natural Protection Zone for Geology and Geomorphology in China, and National Geological Park of China. Among more than 1200 places in the world found to have the Danxia landform, Danxia Mountain is the one with largest area, the most typical characteristics, the richest landform and the most beautiful scenery. It is characterized by magnificence, trill, rareness, beauty, seclusion, wideness and deepness.
Danxia Mountain Highlights
The highest peak of Danxia Mountain is 409 meters. It’s neither the highest nor the biggest mountain while compared to the famous mountains. However, it combines the rare of Mt. Huangshan, the sharp of Mt. Huashan and the beauty of Guilin. The scenic spot can be divided into the upper, middle, lower levers and Jinjiang scenic area, Xianglong Lake and Yangyuan Mountain. There are three peaks in the upper lever, the center of middle lever is Biezhuan Temple and the lower lever Jinshi Rock.
There are more than 680 various stone peaks, stone fortresses, walls, pillars and stone bridges in the scenic area. The stones have been formed over the eons by nature, most of them take the shape of the human body, birds and even animals. The Yangyuan Rock, Yinyuan Rock, Wangfu Rock and Longlin Rock are regarded as the Four Beauties of Danxia Mountain. The numerous stones and peaks are rhythmically interspersed among the scenic spot which makes a sculpture garden of red sandstone rocks.
The mountain is not only with beautiful landscapes, it is also rich in biological resource. Danxia Mountain has a temperate climate and fully rain, so there are various plants in it, especially semitropics evergreen broad-leaved forest. The number of famous trees whose age was above 100 is twenty-eight, the trees whose age were above 300 is fourteen. The phoenix tree in Danxia is the most famous flower in the world. It has many types, such as goering cymbidium, Cymbidium kanran, Michelia alba, Cymbidium sinense, Cymbidium faberi and so on.