Red rock in the sun, trees in the shade
Huoshizhai is a Danxia landscape of red sandstone in Xiji County, about 15 kilometers north of the county seat, inside Guyuan's southern mountains. The tract runs 17 kilometers from north to south and 10 from east to west, between 1,960 and 2,650 meters. Sunny slopes are bare red sandstone. Shady slopes are wooded. Dark-red cliffs, pillars, and ravines stand in the sun, with arrow bamboo among the hills. The hills are flame-colored. The color belongs to the rock that faces the sun. The trees belong to the slopes that stay in shade. At Huoshizhai the sandstone shows itself in the open.
A natural pillar, and cave halls in the rock
One natural cylindrical rock is called the Pillar That Holds Up the Sky. The pillar formed naturally. A Pangu story stands beside that fact, a legend of a creator figure told next to the sandstone. Other named forms include a cliff called Shisi Mountain and a rock called Eagle-and-Snake Peak. Cave halls open in the stone. A walk passes the natural pillar, the cliff of Shisi Mountain, the restored figure at Yuntai Mountain, and the geology museum. At Yuntai Mountain the Sakyamuni is clay modeled on stone, and it has been restored. The grottoes began in the Northern Wei, flourished in the Sui and Tang, and number more than 10 groups and 120 caves. A geology museum of a little over 840 square meters stands in the park, with Cretaceous fish, insect, and plant fossils from the area. At Mukezhai, a story of the Song warrior Mu Guiying is attached to a cliff. The fossils and the bare rock record the geology. The Buddha and the cave halls record later religious use fitted into the same cliffs.
Forest park, geopark, and a provincial reserve
Huoshizhai is a national forest park, a national geopark, and a national AAAA attraction. The geopark name is cut into the rock of the gate. It is not part of the inscribed World Heritage property China Danxia, UNESCO list 1335. Through the end of 2012, Xiji Huoshizhai, in Guyuan, was also a provincial geological-heritage reserve of 9,795 hectares, begun on 1 December 2002. That reserve is the protection boundary. The names at the entrance are the forest park, the geopark, and the AAAA rating. The walk itself stays with the landform: red cliffs and pillars on the sunny side, trees on the shady side, a small museum for the fossils, and cave halls, including the restored figure at Yuntai Mountain, opened in the Danxia of Xiji.