Dongchuan Red Soil Land

At Yunnan highland plateau there is a gorgeous colorful land, seven colors like rainbow, Dongchuan Red soil, a rural place in the Wumeng Mountainous area, about 180km north of Kunming, becomes very famous among Chinese photographers for its red soil. In the mid 1990s, the first Chinese photographers came to discover the Wumeng’s scenery. The first came and scooped award-winning photos, but kept their location a closely guarded secret. But slowly the details leaked and now more and more photographers are making their arduous trip into the arid mountains. The brilliant red soil, the yellow buckwheats and the dramatic skies make the region around Dongchuan a paradise for photographers.

Speaking of Red Soil, the scenery is in fact centralized around “Flower stone”(means colorful valley in Chinese Huashitou) of Xintian Township, which is about 50km away from Dongchuan County seat. where is the radius of nearly one hundred years of regional clay plateau of Yunnan’s most concentrated, The most typical and most characteristic of red land, experts believe that the world outside the exception of Brazil Rio de Janeiro, the most daunting of red earth, and its vision is more sublime than the red soil of Brazil, Those locations are too small to have a name. Locals simply call it 109, 110…the number on the kilometer marker along the road. 109 is almost the highest point on the road, which branches here to another small hamlet. From all around 109 glorious vistas stretch to Guizhou and Sichuan. Dongchuan, as the crow flies not more than 20 kilometers away, is barely visible in the valley far below.

Dongchuan Red Soil And LuoxiaguoLooking around us, mountains and rivers, and wilderness presents a film dull red, purple, brick red of different red, large and small radius of hundreds of miles every hill slopes, rape, potato flowers bloom warm, golden Shakes the Barley the next wave in the cool mountain breeze off a wave, a layer of green, a layer of white, a layer of red, a layer of gold, bright blocks of color thick was spread to the horizon, seemingly casual, yet form a picturesque colorful pattern. Nowhere to be seen, as if heaven smear of color, colorful and dazzling, colorful and full, with elegant lines, but also sketched was so thick and heavy.

The best time to visit Don Chuan (Luoxiaguo) is May to June, September to Dec. different seasons you can see different sceneries. In summer you can see potato¡¯s flowers when rice come to mature the land color will full of yellow flowers, Golden color, In the autumn, parts of read land need to be planted again and other lands already plated green rice or highland barley Yunnan special white Cole flowers amazing colorful scenery. According to locals the third day after rain it¡¯s the most beautiful of Red soil. The wet earth under the sunshine colors more attractive. And sky is bluer, shadows come to reflect to land is totally different in every minutes, If you are lucky you can see the rainbow after rain connect with the red soil, farmers are working in the farm their farm works more like a artistic job. No they are creating the art. the only thing you can do here just pick up your camera and take lots and lots of picture. ¡¡

Dongchuan Red Soil And LuoxiaguoDong chuan people are so kindly they will give you a hand when you have difficulties. as to tour interests in Dong chuan is dispersion and the distance is far away from each other. Usually you need rend a car to go there, one day tour will be 300-400/day.if you are not goanna rent a car the only way to solve is walking. and want to go all these places in one day is impossible. After long walk if you are tired you can wave your hand to a motor car driver is driving near to you. They should give you a ride and will not charge you anything for return. make you feel grateful.

Dong chuan Travel Tips:

1. The best time for photo graph is May, Sep. Nov. at that time there have more colors. Major colors have red, Yellow, Green and white and there have plenty fogs. The best shot to get amazing pictures

2. If you are not driving the car yourselves.Usually you need to rent a car,you can rend a car from the hotels you stay. Rent a car will takes you RMB500/day or you choose go those places by feet, but there have time limits

3. Based on Dong chuan your tour sequence should be

Dongchuan Red Soil And LuoxiaguoShui ping zi terrace tour place (Moon land) to Songmaopeng (Luoxiaguo or luoxiagou) to Huagou (Old huagou) to visit Thousands years of jargon tree – Overview of Red soil The cross road of “T”

From the right side of the cross road of “T” there have “Qicai po” “Jinxiu Yuan” “Damakan”

From the left side of the cross road of “T” there have: Lepuou ” “Luoshi valley” “Wafang liangzi”

The best place for watching Sunrise is “Damakan”

The best place for watching Sunset is “Lepuou” and “Wafang liangzi”

Remark: Each of places have their own different beauty, especially in different time, the scenery will be different from each other. After the rain the red soil color will more brightly, In the morning color of Red soil will be more darker. In the late afternoon the color and light of red soil will be much better.

4. Dong chuan tour areas on the mountain temperature will be lower 4-8°C, Morning and evening will be colder. Many places have heavy wind, Except July to Oct. you need a Long sleeve wind coat. Other seasons you better take a jerseys