10.000 Li of Danxia fly like a rainbow
Candy-color mountains—with rippling stripes of cerulean blue, vibrant magenta, canary-yellow, & blood-orange— belong in a fairy tale, but in China, this is a reality. Though the forms seem as if they could be man-made creations, their coloration is a completely natural phenomenon. The rainbow striations are the result of centuries of tectonic shifts, climatic conditions, & the erosion of red terrigenous sedimentary beds.
Between the massive Qilian Mountains in the south & the unforgiving desert in the north, the Rainbow Mountains were very close to Zhangye, an important trading post on the Silk Road. They evoked religious feelings to the local people & travelers of the Silk Road & given rise to many folktales. People believed that hoards of dragons inhabit the Rainbow Mountains. An ancient poem about the formation reads: \"A dragon flies over a 1000 Li (unit of distance) of peaks & troughs, & 10.000 Li of danxia (sandstone) fly like a rainbow\".
Apostolos Kaloudis, Greece, Athens
