Binggou Danxia Scenic Area 冰沟丹霞

About Binggou Danxia Scenic Area

The county tourism bureau places the site in Sunan county, 45 km eastward from Zhangye city and 41 km westward from the Sunan county seat, at an elevation of between 1,500 and 2,550 m and covering 300 square kilometres. Danxia cliffs, stone walls, stone pillars, sharp peaks, hills and other landforms are widely distributed across it. The bureau calls it the most typical danxia landform of China's arid regions and one of the country's most fully developed and most unusually shaped danxia landscapes, and describes the rock landscape as mainly sandstone landform relics, with what it calls the best-developed and largest lattice-window palace danxia (窗棂状宫殿式丹霞) in China.

The county culture and tourism bureau lays the visit out as two routes, the Daxitian and Xiaoxitian scenic areas, with viewpoints distributed along them. It names a series of shaped formations: 神驼迎宾, a peak weathered at uneven rates into a camel with clear facial features; 古堡魅影, a very large mass shaped like a Western royal palace; 祁连火炬, a pillar formed by differential weathering, 5 m high and 1.8 m at its widest, standing on a summit; 金蟾观霞, a residual shaped block about 2 m high; 玄武门, a rock wall about 80 m wide and 50 m high which the page describes as formed of purple-red sandstone and conglomerate with interbedded gravel (紫红色砂岩砾岩夹砂砾岩) and also calls 龟蛇锁江; 桃园结义, three pillars left on the upper part of a strongly eroded rock wall; and 望归石, two sandstone pillars of unequal height formed by differential weathering of alternating hard and soft beds. The same page calls one castle-shaped formation 卢浮魅影.

The tourism bureau's page records that the site has been rated by 中国地理杂志 and the American National Geographic among 'China's seven most beautiful danxia landforms' and among the 'world's ten great geographical wonders'. It adds that productions including 神探狄仁杰（第三部）have used the site for exterior filming.

What to look for

• 神驼迎宾, a peak weathered into a camel shape with clear facial features
• 祁连火炬, a pillar 5 m high and 1.8 m at its widest, standing on a summit
• 玄武门, the rock wall about 80 m wide and 50 m high that the culture and tourism bureau also calls 龟蛇锁江
• 卢浮魅影, the castle-shaped danxia formation the culture and tourism bureau names
• 望归石, two sandstone pillars of unequal height formed by differential weathering of alternating hard and soft beds

Location & getting there

Getting to Binggou Danxia Scenic Area

Use an authorised visitor route. Cave sections, geological sites and access roads can close independently, so confirm the area that your ticket covers.

• Search for 冰沟丹霞 with 张掖市 and 肃南裕固族自治县.