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Along the Yellow River and beyond

Explore the regional map

Explore every city and autonomous prefecture in this edition. Each has its own places and a complete article library.

Gansu
Lanzhou Jiayuguan Jiuquan Zhangye Jinchang Wuwei Baiyin Tianshui Pingliang Qingyang Dingxi Longnan Linxia Gannan Zhongshan Bridge Mogao Caves Maijishan Grottoes Labrang Monastery Giant Buddha Temple

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Zhangye Colorful Hills

From a ridge the slopes show purple-red, grey-green, yellow-green and grey-black bands. Zhangye's 2022 ordinance calls them the colorful hills of the national geopark and names both Linze County and Sunan County. They do not appear on the China Danxia World Heritage map.

Snow-dusted bands of the Zhangye Danxia hills beneath a clear winter sky; Xinhua credits reporter Zhang Rui.
Snow-dusted bands of the Zhangye Danxia hills beneath a clear winter sky.

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Snow-dusted bands of the Zhangye Danxia hills beneath a clear winter sky; Xinhua credits reporter Zhang Rui.

Color bands in the Zhangye hills

In Linze and Sunan, exposed Cretaceous beds of mudstone and sandstone form vivid bands across dry slopes. The protected landscape belongs to Zhangye National Geopark.

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Photo credits and rights
  1. Snow-dusted bands of the Zhangye Danxia hills beneath a clear winter sky.张睿 · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.