Chishui Danxia and Waterfalls

UNESCO World Heritage Site (China Danxia, 2010); National 5A Tourist Attraction · Chishui, Guizhou

A landscape of red rock, waterfalls and ancient forest in the far north of Guizhou, where the Chishui River cuts through cliffs of the same iron-rich sandstone that gives China Danxia its World Heritage listing. The showpiece is the Shizhangdong Great Waterfall, which drops more than seventy metres in a broad curtain into a plunge pool, throwing spray across a viewing platform and rainbows across the gorge on sunny mornings; a second fall at Zhongdong is narrower and quieter. Around them spreads a sea of bamboo, and the Bamboo Sea national forest park has walkways through groves so dense the light turns green. Rarest of all are the tree ferns known here as alsophila, survivors from the age of the dinosaurs, protected in their own valley reserve where the paths run beneath fronds three metres across. Sidonggou combines the two, a gorge walk past a chain of falls and ferns. The area is also Maotai country, close to the town that gives China its most famous liquor, and its red-rock villages recall the Long March crossings of the Chishui.

Chishui Great Waterfall Scenic Area, Chishui, Zunyi, Chishui, Guizhou, China

Daily, about 8:30-17:30 from April to October and 8:30-17:00 from November to March (check); areas can close after heavy rain.

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