Jiangxi · The Danxia Site Everyone Drives Past
Guifeng Danxia (龟峰)
Red sandstone weathered into towers and domes above a reservoir in eastern Jiangxi. It went onto the UNESCO list in 2010 attached to Mount Longhu, 50 km west, and almost everybody goes to Mount Longhu instead.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A compact group of red sandstone and conglomerate towers, domes and fins, with a reservoir at their foot |
|---|---|
| Where | Yiyang County, Shangrao, in eastern Jiangxi |
| Heritage status | Part of China Danxia, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 as six areas in six provinces. Guifeng was listed together with Mount Longhu |
| The rock | Red beds laid down in an inland basin, later lifted and cut back along vertical joints, which is what produces the tower shapes |
| The name | Guifeng means turtle peak. Local guides will tell you the whole massif is turtles, and once told, you will see them |
| How you see it | Stepped paths and railed walkways fixed to the cliffs, plus a boat on the reservoir |
| Time needed | Half a day covers it properly |
| Getting there | Shangrao or Yingtan, both under an hour away by road, both on the high-speed line |
Why Go
Small, and Better For It
1. The sixth name on a list you may already know
China Danxia went onto the World Heritage list in 2010 as a serial site: six separate areas in six provinces, chosen to show the same red-bed landform at different stages of erosion. Most people who have heard of any of them have heard of Danxiashan in Guangdong, which the landform is named after, or have seen photographs of the painted hills at Zhangye, which are the same red beds doing something different. Guifeng went on the list attached to Mount Longhu, and that is roughly its position in the public mind too.
The word covers more than stripes and more than one big cliff. What the red beds do here is stand up: blunt rounded towers, whale-backed ridges and thin fins, packed close together with forest in the gaps between them. Seeing two of the six areas is how the landform stops being a photograph and starts being a process, and this is the easiest second one to reach.
2. Half a day, on walkways bolted to the rock
The rock area is small enough to walk through. Paths climb between the towers and then run along the cliff faces on railed walkways fixed into the sandstone, so you spend the visit close to the rock rather than looking at it from a distance. A reservoir lies at the foot of the peaks with a boat service on it, which is the other half of the site and the easier half.
That compactness is the argument for coming. Large parks in this landform ask for a full day and a lot of shuttle bus. Here the whole thing fits into a morning, and you leave having been underneath the cliffs instead of having been driven past them.
The catch. This is a provincial-scale attraction run the way they are run: ticket gate, shuttle bus, boardwalk, boat, signage in Chinese. There is no town attached and nothing to eat worth planning around. If you will see only one Danxia site in Jiangxi, Mount Longhu has more in it, with the river, the cliff burials and the Daoist complex on top of the rock. Guifeng has the better rock and the thinner day.
Orientation
Getting There and Getting Around
Shangrao is about 50 km east and Yingtan about 60 km west, both on the high-speed line between Shanghai and Kunming, and both under an hour from the gate by road. There is no way to do this by public transport that is worth the trouble; take a taxi or a car from either.
Inside, a shuttle runs from the gate to the foot of the rock area and the boat pier. The walk through the peaks involves a lot of steps and some exposure on the walkways, and it is not a route for anyone unhappy with heights. The boat is flat and short and suits everybody.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Do the boat first
It reads the site as a whole before you are inside it, and the light on the rock is better from the water early.
Wear shoes with grip
The stone steps are worn smooth in places and the walkway decking is slick after rain, which in Jiangxi is most of the spring.
Bring water and food in
There is very little at the site and nothing near the gate. This is a morning, not a day out.
Pair it, do not isolate it
Half a day here fits neatly with Mount Longhu or with Mount Sanqing. On its own it is a long way to come for three hours.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| October to November | Dry, clear and cool, with low sun that picks out the banding in the rock | The first week of October is the national holiday |
| March to May | Green, full reservoir and cloud moving through the towers | Jiangxi springs are wet. Walkways get slippery and views close in |
| June to September | Long days and a warm boat ride | Severe heat and humidity. Jiangxi summers are among the hardest in the country to walk in |
| December to February | Cold, dry and quiet, with the best air of the year | Grey days are common and some services run reduced |
Context
What Danxia Means, and Why It Was Listed Six Times
Danxia is a Chinese term that entered international geology from this country. It describes thick beds of red sandstone and conglomerate, laid down in hot inland basins, that were later lifted and then cut back by water along vertical joints until what is left stands as cliffs, towers and isolated blocks. The colour comes from iron oxide in the sediment, and the shapes come from the joints.
The 2010 inscription covers six areas because the landform runs through a sequence. Some sites show it young, with plateaus barely dissected. Others show it mature, with a forest of separate towers. Others show it old, with a few worn stumps left on a plain. Putting six places on one listing was a way of inscribing the process rather than a viewpoint, and it is the reason it is worth seeing more than one of them.
Guifeng sits toward the mature end of that sequence. The towers here have separated from each other and stand as individual masses with forest in the gaps, which is why the rock reads as shapes rather than as a wall. Mount Longhu, 50 km west, is the same stage in a river valley. The pair together make the point in a single day better than either does alone.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 50 km west
Mount Longhu (龙虎山)
The same rock and the same heritage listing, with a river through it, coffins in the cliffs and the ancestral seat of a Daoist lineage at the foot.
Spot · 90 km northeast
Mount Sanqing (三清山)
Granite pillars and cloud, a separate World Heritage site in the same prefecture, and a complete change of rock.
Spot · 115 km east
Mount Jianglang (江郎山)
Three enormous rock blades standing on a ridge in Zhejiang, and another of the six Danxia areas on the same listing.
Where to Base
Shangrao (上饶)
Shangrao is the prefecture city and the sensible base: high-speed trains from Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanchang and Changsha, hotels at every level, and roads out to three separate mountains. Guifeng, Mount Sanqing and the Wuyi range are all inside its reach.
Two nights here covers the rock and the granite, which is a genuinely good pairing and the reason to treat Shangrao as a stop rather than a change of trains. Yingtan works equally well if you are coming from the west and going to Mount Longhu first.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · half a day
Boat, then the walkways
The reservoir from the water, then up through the towers on the cliff paths. Three to four hours at an unhurried pace.
Pairing · 2 days
Two of the six Danxia areas
Guifeng in the morning and Mount Longhu the next day, which is the cheapest way to see what the landform actually does rather than what it looks like in one photograph.
Guided · 3 days
Eastern Jiangxi rock and granite
Guifeng, Mount Longhu and Mount Sanqing from a base at Shangrao, with someone who can read the geology out loud.
Come for a morning, take the boat before the walk, and treat it as the second half of a pair with Mount Longhu rather than as a destination of its own. The rock here is the clearest version of what Danxia does when it has been standing long enough to come apart into separate towers, and there will be almost nobody on the walkway with you, which at a World Heritage site is worth something.
See Two of the Six Danxia Areas
Tell us your dates and where you are coming from, and our local team will put Guifeng and Mount Longhu into one route from Shangrao, with the boat timed for the light and someone who can explain what the rock is doing.