Yuanmou Earth Forest

National Geopark And Scenic Area; Eroded Earth Pillar Badlands In The Jinsha River Dry Hot Valley, Near The Site Where Yuanmou Man Was Found In 1965 · Yuanmou, Yunnan

The dry-hot valley of the Jinsha River in northern Yunnan does something to soft ground that nothing else in China quite matches. Over a million and a half years, rain has cut down through beds of clay, sand and gravel and left behind a forest of earth: pillars, spires, walls and columns up to forty metres high, some capped with a stone or a crust of harder material that shielded the column beneath it while everything around washed away. The three main areas - Wumao, Banguo and Xinhua - each erode differently, from grey-yellow towers to pillars streaked ochre and red. It is a beautiful and genuinely hostile landscape. There is no shade, there is no water, the valley regularly passes forty degrees in summer, and the reason to come at dawn or in the last hour of light is not only that the pillars glow but that at midday the place is punishing. Yuanmou is also where, in 1965, the oldest hominin fossils in China were found.

Wumao, Yuanmou County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yuanmou, Yunnan, China

Open daily, generally around 8:00-18:00, with tickets sold at the gate of each area separately - Wumao is the main and most developed one. THERE IS NO SHADE AND NO WATER INSIDE THE SITE, and the valley regularly passes forty degrees in summer, so SUNRISE AND THE LAST HOUR BEFORE SUNSET are the sensible hours and midday should be avoided. Early entry for sunrise may need arranging at the gate. Ravine paths can be closed or unsafe after heavy rain between June and September.

Yuanmou Earth Forest on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos