Guangdong · The Hill the Whole Landform Is Named After
Mount Danxia (丹霞山)
Red sandstone cut into flat-topped towers with vertical sides, in northern Guangdong. Geologists named the landform after this mountain in the 1920s and 1930s, and the word is now used for the same terrain worldwide.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A cluster of flat-topped red sandstone peaks above the Jin river, and the type site for the Danxia landform |
|---|---|
| Where | Renhua County, north of Shaoguan in northern Guangdong |
| The name | Chinese geologists working here in the 1920s and 1930s named the rock beds and then the landform after this mountain |
| The shape | Flat top, sheer sides, gentler slope at the foot. That profile is what the word describes |
| The rock | Cretaceous red conglomerate and sandstone, uplifted and cut along vertical joints |
| Listed | A UNESCO Global Geopark since 2004, and part of the China Danxia world heritage inscription of 2010 with five other sites |
| Getting round | Paths and stairs on Elder Peak, a cable car, and boats on the Jin river below |
| Time needed | A full day. Two if you want sunrise from the summit |
Why Go
Where the Word Comes From
1. A local name that went global
In the late 1920s a Chinese geologist working in this area named the thick red beds here after the mountain, and a decade later a colleague extended the name from the rock to the landform it produces. Danxia went from being the name of one hill in Guangdong to being the standard term for a whole category of terrain, used now for sites across China and for comparable landscapes elsewhere.
What the word actually describes is a shape rather than a colour, which is the point most often lost. Danxia terrain is red sandstone or conglomerate that has been lifted, cracked along vertical joints, and then eroded so that each block keeps a flat top and loses its sides, leaving towers with sheer walls and a gentler apron of debris at the bottom. Colour helps, but the profile is the definition.
2. Which is why Zhangye is not on the list
The China Danxia world heritage inscription of 2010 covers six sites, this one among them, and the famous striped hills at Zhangye in Gansu are not included. Those hills are the right rock and the wrong shape: they are rounded and banded rather than cliffed and flat-topped, and Chinese geomorphology classes them separately as coloured hills.
That distinction is invisible in English-language travel writing, where Danxia has come to mean the rainbow-striped photograph. If you came to China wanting to see Danxia because of those pictures, this mountain is the thing the word was invented for, and it looks nothing like them.
The catch. It is steep and it is humid. Northern Guangdong in summer is hot and wet, the stone stairs on Elder Peak are long and slippery after rain, and the famous sunrise requires either a night on the mountain or a start in the dark. The cable car covers part of the ascent but not the ridge walk, which is where the views are.
Orientation
Peak in the Morning, River After
The main walking is on Elder Peak, a stepped route with a cable car covering the lower section, ending on a flat summit with the temple and the sunrise platform. Allow three hours up, round and down at a pace that lets you stop.
The Jin river boat runs below the cliffs and takes about forty minutes, and it is the only way to see the towers from underneath. Doing the peak first and the river afterwards puts the walking in the cool part of the day.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Sunrise means sleeping up there
There is accommodation on the mountain. Coming up from Shaoguan in the dark works but is a long start to a long day.
Rain makes the stairs serious
Red sandstone steps with algae on them in a subtropical climate. Grip matters more here than at most Chinese mountains.
The named rocks are signposted
Two formations are named and marked for what they resemble, and the signage is explicit. It is not a hidden joke and nobody is being coy about it.
Shaoguan is the base, not the sight
The town is an hour away and functional. Stay on the mountain if you can.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| October to December | Dry, clear and cool, with the best chance of a cloud sea at dawn | Nights on the summit are cold for Guangdong |
| March to April | Green, with mist in the valleys most mornings | Wet, and the steps stay slick for days |
| May to September | Everything open and the vegetation at its densest | Hot, humid and the typhoon season. Heavy rain closes the boats |
| January to February | Quiet and clear, and the light on the cliffs is at its best | Cold and damp, and the Chinese New Year week is busy |
Context
Red Rock and Chinese Geology
Danxia is one of the few geomorphological terms to enter international use from Chinese rather than from European or American work, and that is not an accident. The terrain is widespread in southern and central China and barely represented in Europe, so it fell to Chinese geologists in the early twentieth century to describe it, and they named it after the site where they did the describing.
The rock beneath it is the record of a hot, dry period in the Cretaceous when inland basins filled with red sand and gravel washed off surrounding highlands. The iron in that sediment oxidised as it was laid down, which is where the colour comes from, and the whole sequence was later lifted and fractured as the region was squeezed.
What makes it a landscape rather than a geology lesson is the climate. Southern China is wet and warm, so vegetation colonises every ledge and flat surface while water and gravity keep the vertical faces bare. The result is the pattern you see here: green tops and green aprons with red walls between them.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 650 km north
Mount Longhu (龙虎山)
Danxia towers along a river in Jiangxi, plus the ancestral seat of one branch of Daoism and cliff burials. Also on the 2010 listing.
Spot · 270 km northwest
Langshan (崀山)
The peak-forest version of the same landform, in Hunan, rising straight out of farmland. Also on the 2010 listing.
Cave · 140 km west
Lianzhou Underground River (连州地下河)
Limestone caverns on the other side of the same hills, which is the contrasting landform in this province.
Where to Base
Shaoguan (韶关)
Shaoguan is on the fast line between Guangzhou and Changsha, about fifty minutes from Guangzhou, which makes this one of the easier mountains in the south to reach. The site is about an hour further by road.
Staying on the mountain is better than staying in the town if you want the dawn. Otherwise Shaoguan works as a base and the day trip from Guangzhou is possible but long.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · 3 hr
Elder Peak
Cable car up, the ridge and the flat summit on foot, and the stepped path back down.
Boat · 40 min
The Jin river
Under the cliffs at water level, which is the only angle that gives their height.
Guided · 4 days
Three Danxia sites
This one, Longhu in Jiangxi and Langshan in Hunan, which between them cover the range of the landform.
Worth a full day and a night on the mountain if the forecast is clear. Walk Elder Peak in the morning and take the river boat afterwards, and go knowing that this is the place the word Danxia was coined for. If you arrived expecting rainbow stripes, that is a different landform in a different province and this page explains why.
Plan the Danxia Sites as a Route
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: Shaoguan from Guangzhou on the fast line, a night on the mountain for the dawn, and the other Danxia sites north of here if you want the full comparison.