Dawn in Zhangye.

Our fall trip around northern-central China was literally coming full circle on the big rock-desert loop from Xining to Xining. Our final must-see tourist spots were near the city of Zhangye, with the first one being the Zhangye Danxia Geopark…

So what is this place? Well, it’s just over 500km² (if the internet is to be believed) of multi-colored mountains and hills. And the colors here are absolutely mind-blowing:

No Photoshop used! This is exactly how things looks at sunrise and sunset! The daytime view is still stunning but a bit more washed out. The best shots are at the beginning and end of a day:

I was here back in 2015 – in raptures about these insane colors, and also mentioned how a lot of money was being invested into the local tourism infrastructure. Ten years later – and the changes are obvious. Plenty of new walkways and viewing platforms, a brand-new tourist center, and even some nice hotels nearby (back then we had to stay in the city):

New entrance to the geopark (there are several now) ->

Tourists get shuttled about amid these colorfully striped landscapes by coach and then are let loose to explore (within strict boundaries, of course, so that this UNESCO Global Geopark doesn’t get trampled) ->

Everything’s painted in colors that blend in with the surroundings so that the infrastructure doesn’t stick out. Even the roof of the restroom is striped to match the scenery!

The viewing platforms don’t obstruct the view or ruin your photos. Now, if only they could make tourists wear muted colors too ) ->

There are several walking areas here. To take everything in properly, you need at least three to four hours of moderately-paced strolling…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s rewind back to the dawn – when we got here after skipping breakfast!…

The sun was still below the horizon, but the landscape was already starting to hint at the colors to come…

Sunrise! It makes you want to start singing Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles – but I refrained. I may be a lot of things but reasonable singer isn’t one of them!…

Then came the colors, with all of us fairly gasping in amazement! ->

Judging by the old trails, folks used to be able to walk across the hills; no more: everything’s fenced off – and quite right too…

This place is simply magical – a paradise for quiet contemplation. The views are breathtaking, and the photos have turned out pretty good too ->

Sunrises (and sunsets) are always nice to watch – but here? Here, it’s just next-level. We stood on the viewing platform, completely mesmerized, for at least an hour:

And then the sun started painting surreal landscapes in even deeper hues:

Gotta say, they did a fantastic job blending in the infrastructure with the natural colors:

Absolutely stunning! ->

Striped to perfection!

What added to the perfection was the fact we were here right after Golden Week; normally the viewing platforms would have been rammed ->

More views in the category of “this can’t be real!”: ->

The colors in these later photos are a bit more muted compared to the morning ones. That’s just how it works. During the day the sun reduces the intensity of the colors. They’re still amazing, though – and already I want to go back!

And yes, you can fly a drone here – oh, the views! ->

These landscapes look unreal – but they’re 100% genuine! ->

The sheer vibrancy of these hills is overwhelming ->

So how did all this come about? Simple: nature casually layered different-colored sediment on the bottom of an ancient sea. Then tectonic forces pushed everything up, twisted and deformed it a few times, erosion did its job, repeat the process a hundred more times – and voilà!…

Not a bad result, huh?

An absolutely mesmerizing place – perfect for meditative contemplation:

They hold hot air balloon festivals here (though I’m not sure when) – I saw this on a billboard:

These are just “photos of photos”, and yeah, there’s been some heavy Photoshop involved, but you still get an idea of the scale:

So – is there anything similar to this elsewhere in the world? Well, there are the Martian Mountains in Altai (Kizil-Chin), but, though the intensity of colors is on a par, they’re a thousand times smaller in scale. There are also colorful mountains in both Peru and Argentina – but more on those another time. Meanwhile, China has its own unique palette:

And here’s some more motivational eye-candy from this place:

I hope you all, dear readers, get a chance to visit this absolutely mind-blowing place one day.

But we weren’t saying goodbye to Zhangye just yet – there’s another hidden gem nearby that almost no one outside China knows about. More on it in my next – and final! – China-2024 post!…

The rest of the photos from our China-2024 trip are here.