久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Travel
Home / Travel / News

Forces of nature create iconic landforms along the Hexi Corridor

By ZHAO XU and MA JINGNA in Lanzhou | China Daily | Updated: 2025-04-05 09:24
Share
Share - WeChat
The Pingshan Lake Grand Canyon features undulating terrain that resembles the rippling ocean floor. TONG YUNSHAN/CHINA DAILY

In the Hexi Corridor, an ancient trade route in Northwest China, its historic magnitude is rivaled only by its majestic nature, which continually inspires the heroic stamina required to endure this rugged land.

Yet, natural forces that shaped this landscape were at work tens of millions of years before Homo sapiens ever walked the Earth, a fact that travelers to the corridor in Gansu province are constantly reminded of.

The corridor owes its very existence to the collision between the Indian and the Eurasian plates which began around 50 million years ago and continues slowly even today. Direct results of the collision include the formation of plateaus, the lifting of mountain ranges and the development of various landforms.

The Qilian Mountains, formed by the tectonic collision, became nature's solution to the region's widespread drought. Without the constant supply of meltwater, which fed major rivers and replenished underground aquifers, life would have been unsustainable.

To witness the region's remarkable landforms, one must visit Zhangye and Dunhuang, which played pivotal roles in the history of the Hexi Corridor as oasis towns.

In Zhangye, this means exploring the Danxia landscape — a term coined by Chinese geologists in the 1920s.

Over 50 million years ago, this terrain lay beneath the ocean until tectonic forces thrust it upward, exposing its layered sedimentary rocks.

Danxia means "the red afterglow" in Chinese, indicating the landscape's dominant rusty red hue produced by iron oxide. Zhangye boasts several Danxia sites, including the Pingshan Lake Grand Canyon and Zhangye National Geopark. The latter is home to what's known as the "Colorful Danxia", where red serves as the backdrop to a striking palette shaped by minerals — iron sulfide responsible for yellow hues while high concentrations of chloride and iron silicate for shades of green and blue.

Different seasons and times of day present various visuals. At sunrise and sunset, the hills burn with a fiery glow. In late winter, a delicate veil of snow softens the gradient layers, making the land look like a delicately frosted cake.

For a breathtaking perspective, visitors can take a helicopter or hotair balloon ride over the geopark. From above, the undulating terrain resembles the rippling ocean floor it once was.

To view a more petrified sea, head to the Dunhuang Yardang National Geopark.

Yardang (Yadan in Chinese) refers to land formations sculpted by relentless desert winds. Whistling past the jutting, silent turret of stratified sandstone, the wind — a perennial force to reckon with in this part of the world — has bestowed a haunting, yet mesmerizing name: Devil City.

The land formations take on three distinct shapes — walls, towers and pillars. Together, they rise like nature's own Great Wall, standing sentinel over the vast Gobi Desert.

Within the geopark, a 5-square-kilometer area is dominated by neatly aligned land formations — so precise in their arrangement that they resemble a fleet. Yet, the moment they were about to sail into the vast ocean they once belonged to, they froze as if under a spell — waiting to captivate every visitor who beholds them.

Tong Yunshan contributed to this story.

Most Popular
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
 
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产成人精品久久 | 亚洲美女自拍视频 | 免费视频精品一区二区三区 | 日本精品99| 国产大尺度福利视频在线观看 | 一级黄色录像片 | 亚洲国产精品久久久久666 | 日本精品一区二区三区视频 | 日本一区二区高清免费不卡 | 欧美日韩综合网在线观看 | 美女图片1314mm爽爽爽 | 精品国产1区 | 精品视频一区二区三区免费 | 国产视频成人 | 免费一级视频在线播放 | 午夜影院亚洲 | 国产成人亚洲综合网站不卡 | 天干夜天天夜天干天ww | 亚洲国产经典 | 午夜毛片免费观看视频 | 国产亚洲一区二区三区不卡 | 曰本人做爰大片免费观看一 | 国产毛片久久久久久国产毛片 | 亚洲男人的天堂久久香蕉 | 亚洲香蕉久久一区二区三区四区 | 永久免费91桃色福利 | 日本精品视频一视频高清 | 亚洲精品综合久久中文字幕 | 日韩三级黄色 | a级网站在线观看 | 日本不卡高清免费 | 国产人做人爱视频精品 | 高清国产在线观看 | 美国人成毛片在线播放 | 高清性色生活片欧美在线 | 国产精品亚洲精品久久成人 | 国产在线观看免费人成小说 | 亚洲欧美在线免费观看 | 成人性版蝴蝶影院污 | 免费一级毛片在线观看 | 欧美日韩在线播一区二区三区 |