Red cliffs in the shape of a table

Langshan is Danxia, the landform of red sandstone in which the rock has been carved into sheer cliffs, pillars and narrow lanes, and it is one of the largest examples of the form, a rare and large Danxia landscape of 108 square kilometres. The geologists describe it as a mature-stage Danxia peak-forest, its features the work of long erosion on the red beds, and they call it the soul of Danxia and a treasure of the country. The formations run the full vocabulary of the landform: table-topped mountains and platforms, pillars and stone walls that rise straight from the ground, red cliffs and narrow winding lanes between the rock, all of it the same red sandstone cut by water and time. Legend gives the mountain its name, saying the emperor Shun, passing south, praised the place and gave it the character that is read as a good mountain. The red rock, in short, is the whole subject of the place. The mountain's formations run from table mountains and platforms to pillars and stone walls, with red cliffs and winding lanes between, the whole of it a single mature-stage peak forest.

Langshan is gathered into six scenic areas, each a different face of the red rock. There is Bajiao Fort, the eight-cornered stronghold of stone; Chilli Peak, a pillar shaped like the pepper; the Tianyi Lane, a narrow passage between the cliffs; the Fuyi River, the clear water that runs through the site; Zixia Gorge; and the Tiancheng natural bridge. The Fuyi River is part of the landscape itself, running clear beneath the red cliffs, and the poet Ai Qing, who wrote of the region, said that Guilin's scenery is the finest under heaven but Langshan's rivals it. The valley between the peaks is thus a place of names and shapes, each outcrop named for what it resembles, and the river ties the six areas together into a single landscape of red stone and clear water, a country of named rock that has been read as both mountain and picture. The six scenic areas each take their name from the rock, the pepper-shaped pillar, the eight-cornered fort and the lane of a single day's width, so the valley is read as a set of named shapes.

Langshan is now a listed and managed landscape. In 2010 it joined five other Danxia sites, the Danxia Mountain of Guangdong, Taining of Fujian, Longhu Mountain of Jiangxi, Jianglang Mountain of Zhejiang and Chishui of Guizhou, to be inscribed together as the China Danxia World Heritage property. The mountain is also a national geological park, a national scenic area and a 5A tourist attraction, the highest rating, and it is a World Heritage site that sits within Xinning County, a county whose recorded history reaches back to a marquisate of the Western Han. The listing has made the mountain the county's chief asset, and the poet's line about its rivalry with Guilin is now part of how the place is presented. What was once a stretch of red rock in the southwest of Shaoyang has become a world-listed park, and its cliffs now do the county's work of drawing visitors. The World Heritage listing of 2010 and the national geological park have given the mountain a formal standing, and the poet's line about Guilin is now repeated as the place's own praise.