Danxiashan, about seventy kilometres from Shaoguan, is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site where sixty million years of red sandstone deposition followed by erosion has produced a landscape of towers, cliffs, and narrow canyon slots the colour of dried blood. The defining feature is scale: the formation covers over 300 square kilometres, and the range of rock shapes — from sheer vertical faces to eroded pinnacles to cave formations — means that a full day barely scratches the surface.
The most visited area is around Yangyuan Rock, where a particularly frank piece of natural erosion has produced a formation of such obvious anatomical resemblance that it has become the most-photographed rock in the park and the source of considerable embarrassed laughter. Beyond this, the serious scenery is the canyon system at Jiashan and the multiple hiking trails that cross between formations. The red light on the cliffs at dawn and dusk is genuinely spectacular; come for the first bus and stay late.