World Natural Heritage: China Danxia (2)

In China, the term Danxia refers to a kind of landform with special landscape features and a distinctive red color like “rosy clouds” or the “crimson rays of the sunrise.” This term was first introduced to China by geologists in the 1920s and was used as the name of landforms which originated from Mount Danxia in Guangdong Province in China. This term is widely accepted in China.

Danxia can be defined at the geological and geomorphic level as a kind of landform above thick sediments of down-faulted basins located at the edge of the active continental plates in the Western Pacific. They are mainly composed of red sandstones and conglomerates, and reflect the depositional environment of oxidized lacustrine basins. These deposit layers shaped the peaks, cliffs and canyons and other wonderful landscapes with great scenic beauty after experiencing regional crustal uplifts, severe fractures, the in-depth water cutting and erosion, block movements, weathering and dissolution. China’s Danxia landforms contain a series of landscapes from ones in their immature stage with subtle topographical features and undeveloped sapping, to ones in the mature stage with mazy peaks and well-developed valleys. There are also ones which are in the veteran stage and is characterized by isolated peaks surrounded by a wide range of lowlands and extensive river systems.

More than 780 Danxia landforms have been discovered in China so far. They are widely distributed in the tropical zone, subtropical humid areas, temperate and sub-humid areas, semi-arid and arid areas, and the cold areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. International research data shows that red beds are widely distributed on all continents around the world except on Antarctica, and they have developed into same or similar geomorphic types with China’s Danxia landforms. Therefore, Danxia is a special natural and geographical phenomena and a kind of red bed landform with global significance.