Zhangye Binggou Danxia: Desolate and lonely beauty

Danxia is a red landform first discovered and named by the Chinese. Its prototype is Danxia Mountain in Guangdong. The Danxia in the humid southern region is well known for its strange peaks and rocks, but the Danxia in the arid northwest region is a different type of Danxia, ​​showing another unique temperament. The classic representative is the Binggou Danxia in Zhangye.

▲Binggou Danxia. Photo by Li Zhongdong

01 Zhangye Danxia in Binggou

In recent years, Zhangye's golden phantom has amazed the world. "The most colorful hills in China", "the most beautiful Danxia landform in China", "the world's top ten magical geological wonders", "China's Rainbow Mountain", people are eager to use all the good words to praise it. However, it is very regrettable that those beautiful and colorful landscapes on the Internet are not Danxia landforms, but a kind of colorful hilly landforms.

For a long time, colorful hills have almost become the spokesperson for Zhangye Danxia. It was not until a few years ago that geomorphologists corrected this beautiful mistake under their persistence. But Zhangye Danxia is not a legend, but it is not in the well-known Nantai, but in Binggou, Sunan County, 20 kilometers away from Nantai. The Zhangye Danxia recognized by geologists also refers to Binggou Danxia.

▲Ice gully, characterized by the development of rock walls and rock pillars. Photo by Yang Jian

02 Round top, protruding eaves, steep body and gentle foot: the identification code of Binggou Danxia

After seeing the Danxia hidden by green plants, when the ice gully appeared before our eyes, it almost overturned our understanding of Danxia.

In the desolate northwest wilderness, it looks like a city, a fortress, a human, and an animal. Against the backdrop of the bloody sunset and the setting sun in the desert, Danxia looks like a lost ancient country. Human figures are looming, and it seems that we can hear the sound of horse hooves and the melodious sound of camel bells. It seems that we have entered not the wonders of nature, but a thousand-year-old city abandoned in the desert. This is the impression of Binggou Danxia, ​​mysterious and distant.

▲Ice gully, characterized by the development of rock walls and rock pillars. Photo by Zhao Feng Travel Photography (TuChong Creative)

Binggou Danxia developed in the sandstone and mudstone of the rock layer. This kind of rock is rough and hard, and was formed in the river and lake environment about 65 million years ago.

Over millions of years, it has been divided and disintegrated under the erosion of gravity collapse and seasonal water flow, and gradually formed. In addition, the strong wind erosion, large evaporation and low vegetation coverage have led to various micro-topography changes on the steep cliff surface of the mountain, and many unique Danxia forms have developed, such as mud milk, window lattice, columnar, peak forest, stacked plate, steep cliff, honeycomb, palace, and bad land.

Binggou Danxia is famous for its diverse shapes and endless changes, and most of them show the characteristics of "round top, protruding eaves, steep body and gentle foot". Among them, the palace-style Danxia is named after this place, becoming a national model.

▲Ice gully, characterized by the development of rock walls and rock pillars. Photo by Li Zhongdong

03 The beauty of the shapes and colors of Binggou Danxia

Following the gullies cut by the flowing water into the interior of the Danxia world, the "alleys" and "lines of sky" are narrow and cramped, like walking in a maze.

On both sides of the valley, the mature Danxia looks like a city or a fortress, with giant rock pillars rising from the ground, tall and majestic.

The old Danxia also presents the beauty of imperfection. Under the long-term erosion of wind and rain, the once huge fortress collapsed, forming various residual peaks and pillars. They are jagged and abrupt, strange and interesting.

Walking from the gully to the ridge, the view is refreshing. The sky and earth are majestic and vast, and the various forms of Danxia gather like a sand table.

▲Xianggu. Photo by Li Zhongdong

Castle rock wall

Three levels of planation surfaces can be seen among the undulating mountains. Each level forms a completely different landscape, and the highest level forms an undulating castle-like rock wall.

The "Phantom of the Louvre" is a classic of this kind of landscape. The rock wall is composed of Cretaceous purple-red sandstone and conglomerate. The rock layers are horizontal or nearly horizontal. The flowing water erodes along the structural direction and vertical joints, leaving the wonders in this wilderness. It is about 150 meters wide and 50 meters high. The cliffs on all four sides are suspended in the air. From a distance, it looks like the Louvre standing in the sky.

▲The representative of the castle-like rock wall - Phantom of the Louvre. Photo by Yang Jian

Hilly Peak Cluster

The second-level planation surface is mostly in the form of hill-like peak clusters. This type of peak cluster often develops along the slope of one side of the ridge and is continuously distributed on both sides of the valley. The peak clusters are very interesting in shape. The peaks are mostly single slopes covered with green grass, and the peaks are steep and red in color. The peak clusters are often stacked in two or three layers. From a distance, they look like small wooden houses in fairy tales. The landscapes are also often named beer houses, mushroom houses, etc., which also have a fairy tale sense of joy.

▲Hump-like peaks. Photo by Tuchong Creative

Rock walls and pillars

The lowest level of planation surface develops square upright stone pillars and isolated rock walls, forming many classic landscapes. Yin-Yang Pillars, the iconic landscape of Binggou Danxia, ​​is a combination of isolated rock walls and square stone pillars, and is also a typical representative of Danxia landform in its young and middle age.

The height of the two stone pillars is about 50 meters. The pillar called Yang pillar is slightly square and slightly thick at the top. The other Yin pillar has a square base and a plate-like body with a naturally formed hole at the top. Standing under the pillar and looking up, the stone pillars stand out from the ground and pierce the sky, which is very imposing. As the sun sets, the afterglow reflects on the stone pillars, which are red and shining. The majestic beauty is beyond words.

In addition to the Yin-Yang Pillars, the Arc de Triomphe and the Turtle and Snake Locking the River are both typical large rock walls and stone pillars.

▲Yin Yang Pillar. Photo by Li Zhongdong

Residual Danxia

The rock walls, stone pillars and isolated peaks continue to weather, collapse and disintegrate into smaller residual rock blocks. This is the final stage of the development of the Danxia landform and the last remnants before the Danxia disappears.

Binggou has preserved many such remnant Danxia rocks, which stand on the hillside like people, ghosts, gods, beasts, flowers, birds, fish and insects. People have named them "Divine Camel Welcoming Guests", "Egyptian Pharaoh", "Golden Toad Watching the Clouds", "Eagle Head Rock" and "Qilian Torch".

▲Old Danxia-Qilian Torch

04 Window Lattice Danxia

In Daliebagou, which is across the river from Binggou, there is also a Danxia landform famous for its weirdness. This is the sandstone window lattice palace structure, which is a unique Danxia landform wonder in the arid northwest region of my country.

This landform is composed of concave and convex overlapping, soft and hard mudstone and sandstone in the horizontal direction. Due to differential weathering, the mudstone with lower hardness forms relative grooves, while the sandstone with higher hardness forms convex ridges. In the vertical direction, many mudflow materials form mud hangings, and mud stalactites are formed in some areas.

This kind of landform has a facade that resembles a window lattice, and the overall structure is like a palace, so Mr. Huang Jin named it "window lattice palace structure". They are distributed along both sides of the valley, and look like a palace from a distance, and like thousands of Buddhas meditating from a close distance.

▲"Window lattice palace structure. Photo by Li Zhongdong

05 How is the landscape created?

How was Binggou Danxia formed, and why has it stood for thousands of years? This is due to the relatively simple geological structure of the unique rocks here and the continuous erosion of seasonal water.

The purple-red sandstone and mudstone that formed Danxia are moderately soft and hard, which is conducive to water cutting but not to rapid collapse. These rocks have horizontal rock layers and little extrusion and deformation, which is conducive to the formation of rock walls. The grid-like vertical joints in the rocks are conducive to the collapse and disintegration of the rocks under the action of gravity, forming isolated rock peaks of various shapes. The rock peaks are cracked along the vertical cracks, gradually separated from the parent rock, and finally formed upright stone pillars.

▲Schematic diagram of the formation of Binggou Danxia. Drawing by Yang Jinshan, source of information: "Zhangye National Geopark Scientific Guide" (Xu Kejian and Li Zhongdong)

As for the reason why the stone pillar does not fall, it is because it has a "rainproof device". There is a layer of conglomerate on the top of the stone pillar. This hard and non-weatherable rock forms an eaves, which is like a rain cap on the stone pillar to prevent it from being directly washed away by running water. As a result, after the surrounding rocks are completely eroded, the stone pillar can still be preserved intact.

As the rock walls, stone pillars and isolated peaks continue to be eroded, they will further collapse and disintegrate into smaller residual rock blocks, that is, various pictographic rocks. They are the final stage of the development of Danxia landform and the last stubborn existence before Danxia disappears.

▲Schematic diagram of the formation of stone pillars. Drawing by Yang Jinshan, source of information: "Zhangye National Geopark Scientific Guide" (Xu Kejian and Li Zhongdong)

06 What is the difference between Binggou Danxia

Some people may be curious, although both are Danxia, ​​what is the difference between Binggou Danxia and Southern Danxia?

This has to start with the rock type and climate environment. The sandstone that formed Binggou was affected by the sedimentary environment, and the debris particles were relatively coarse and the hardness was relatively weak, while the southern Danxia was generally formed by thick, massive sandstone, with dense rock properties and strong pressure resistance. Therefore, the southern Danxia is easier to preserve, while the Binggou Danxia is more susceptible to wind and frost erosion and is a perishable landscape.

▲Stone pillar. Photo by Li Zhongdong

Secondly, the southern Danxia is located in the subtropical monsoon climate zone, and river erosion dominates the development of Danxia landforms. Danxia is characterized by "flat top, steep body, and gentle foothills". It often develops peaks and forests along the river and meandering canyons, forming clear water Danxia. Rock troughs, frontal holes, flat holes, through holes, and sky bridges often appear on the cliffs or in the landforms. Danxia on the edge of the Sichuan Basin has also developed ring-shaped steep cliffs due to the influence of river upstream erosion and lateral erosion.

▲The typical Danxia in the south - Guangdong Danxia Mountain and Binggou Danxia have obvious differences in characteristics. Photo by Yang Jian

The Binggou Danxia is located in the cold temperate arid zone of the continent. The evaporation is large, the temperature difference weathering and salt weathering are strong, and there is a certain amount of wind erosion and freeze-thaw. The layered or flaky exfoliation is obvious, and the surface of the Danxia landform is rough, forming unique types such as mud milk, window lattice, and stacked plate. The morphology is characterized by alleys and valleys, steep cliffs, peaks, square mountains, stone pillars, and residual hills.

Due to the dry climate and sparse vegetation, Binggou Danxia does not have the effect of green trees surrounding clear water like the southern Danxia. However, it is often framed with the Qilian Snow Mountain, forming a sharp contrast in color. There are few plants such as lichens and mosses on the wall, but the Quaternary loess on the top is mostly withered yellow, showing a desolate beauty.

▲Isolated rock wall. Photo by Li Zhongdong

07 The lonely beauty of the Hexi Corridor

The movie "Three Guns Surprise" made the colorful hills of Nantai the center of attention. Compared with the bustling Nantai, most of the time, Binggou Danxia is a secluded corner with few tourists. If the colorful hills of Nantai show us the beauty of the colors of sandstone landforms with their colorful colors, then Binggou embodies more of the morphological beauty of sandstone landforms.

Let’s put it this way, Nantai Caiqiu is like a gorgeous woman in gorgeous clothes, while Binggou Danxia is a stunning beauty with a slender figure. The combination of beauty and charm is even more breathtaking.

▲Binggou Danxia. Photo by Tuchong Creative

Sunan County, where Binggou is located, is the only Yugu Autonomous County in my country and Gansu. It is located in the middle of the Hexi Corridor and the northern foot of the Qilian Mountains, and is home to nearly 90% of the country's Yugu people.

It is said that the oldest ancestors of the Yugur people can be traced back to the Dingling in the 3rd century BC, the Tiele in the 4th century BC, and the Huihe who lived in the Selangge River and Orkhon River basins.

They still retain the nomadic lifestyle and have a unique language. The oldest folk songs here still follow the tunes of Xiongnu folk songs 2,000 years ago. Because there is no written language, they are more serious and cautious about passing on their own culture.

In the Hexi Corridor, the Guyu people are like the strange Danxia here, although they are wonderful enough, they are also low-key and tolerant enough. They are all the lonely beauties of this land.

▲Danxia Stone Pillar-Snake coming out of the cave. Photo by Li Zhongdong

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References

Xu Kejian, Li Zhongdong, "Scientific Guide to Zhangye National Geopark", Geological Publishing House, 2015