Zhangye Danxia

The hills west of Zhangye are made of sandstone and mudstone laid down in layers of different colour, then tilted and eroded, so the slopes are striped in bands of red, orange, cream and grey running diagonally across them. Four viewing platforms are linked by a shuttle bus, each with staircases up to boardwalks along the ridge, and the colours are strongest at the last two. This is a place for looking rather than walking, since the ground itself is fragile and fenced off. The bands are a bedding feature rather than a surface stain, and they change dramatically with the light. It is not part of the inscribed China Danxia group of sites.

What you actually see

• Platform four - the highest boardwalk, with the widest view across the striped ridges.
• The banded slopes - the diagonal layers of red, ochre and grey that give the site its name.
• Sunset light - the last half hour, when the colours deepen and the shadows lengthen.
• The Qilian mountains - the snow range on the southern horizon behind the hills.

When to go

Late afternoon into sunset is the best light by a wide margin, and rain shortly beforehand deepens the colours. Midday flattens everything to a pale pink. Summer is hot and dusty but reliable, while winter is cold and the shuttle runs a shortened schedule. Buy a late entry slot and stay until the platforms close, when crowds thin sharply.

Honest expectations

Photographs of this place are routinely saturated far beyond what the eye sees, and first-time visitors often find it washed out in person, especially at midday. The platforms are fenced boardwalks with fixed views and no walking on the hills themselves. Shuttle buses fill up between platforms, and sunset means a crush at the exit.

Nearby

Zhangye town, the Mati Si cave temples and the Qilian grasslands.