One of the most interesting place which attracted me to join inner Mongol tour was the picture of Rainbow Mountains with its beautiful layering color. From our hotel we had to travel around 4 hours by bus to reach the place, we stopped by for lunch first in a restaurant near to the place, it's a set menu of Chinese food, served for 10 persons/table. The restaurant was quite crowded with tourists, so we had to wait for few minutes to get the meal. Lucky we still get tables at the ground, no need to go to the second floor. Our tour leader informed that the toilet was not good in the restaurant, if we could wait, the toilet at rainbow mountains would be cleaner and not smelly. I decided to follow his suggestion, although the weather was getting cold there.
I started worrying when coming out from the bus, I didn't expect the weather that cold. I didn't bring scarf, just wearing a thin sweater. It's windy and cold, definitely I need scarf to protect my neck. Lucky there was a seller right at the front of the restaurant, I asked my friend's opinion to select the best while waiting for the food was ready. After lunch, we rushed to the bus, I couldn't wait seeing the Zhangye National Geopark soon.
Arriving at the place, our bus was not allowed to go inside the area, the bus had to park at the parking lot, while we had to walk further passing through some stalls selling snack, souvenirs and others towards a building where the proper many toilet rooms available for the tourists, it's clean, not smelly, water flowing well. So many tourists were coming, we found a little bit difficulty to find our group member, then our tour guide asked us to make 2 rows hand in hand to avoid losing members to go to the bus terminal. A bad habit of most Chinese mainland, they could not queue properly, they would like to overtake any queue, so we had to hold tight to avoid separation.
The shuttle bus provided by the government to bring tourists among places in the park, it's good to avoid traffic and pollution. Unfortunately the officer could not speak English, so we couldn't communicate well with them, and most of them were quite fierce, maybe because of many tourists could not queue well. Our tour leader argued and complained him, as she would like to have all of us in the same bus, while the officer forced us to get on the bus based on the queue. Finally we could go in the same bus, giving a chance for the tourist after us to take the bus first.
There were 4 stops in the park, where we could explore the scenery. The first one was the lowest part while the fourth was the highest. On the way we already could see beautiful scenery with colorful layering rock as if layer cake. I tried to take picture, but it's rather bumpy and must take from the window's bus, so it's not too good, sometimes it's blurred and had shadow. It's still drizzle, people said that after raining, the red color would be more obvious. It's still cloudy when we arrived on the 1st stop.
After short briefing about gathering time, I ran to the edge of the area, where we could take picture with the layering mountains as the background, we had to queue as many tourists prefer to take picture from the same location. Based on the signage it's called "Returning Sail in The Sunset". We walked around and found a helicopter parked in the area. You could rent the helicopter to enjoy the aerial panoramic of the rainbow mountains. I also asked my friend to take my pictures on a bench. Finally our friends joined and we took picture at the end of the bridge, as we could not go across the bridge, it's closed. We also tried to jump while our friends' husbands captured the action, it's difficult to jump together at the same time.
As the time was not enough to explore each stop, Sunny, our local tour guide suggested us to move to the fourth stop, the last one, skipped the 2nd and 3rd one. It's a good decision, it's much better than spending short time in every stop, wasting time by queuing for shuttle bus to go to the next stop. The 4th stop was more amazing, the color was more obvious. This time our friend who stayed in Auckland encouraged us to climb to the top. The path was quite good, it's already built well with wood stairs and fence, so it's not too difficult to climb. I stopped many times to take a breath and take picture, till my roommate friend got a little upset waiting for me.
It's very windy, but to make the picture looked good, I took off my sweater & glasses while taking picture, it's quite troublesome, to take off and on again and again .... I really felt amazed and enjoyed Zhangye Danxia, the unusual colours of the rocks, as result of deposits of sandstone and other minerals that occurred over 24 million years. Wind, rain, and time then sculpted extraordinary shapes, including towers, pillars, and ravines, with varying colours, patterns, and sizes. Our friend from NZ already returned from the end of the path. They said that it's more beautiful there, my roommate insisted to go back as time to gather getting closer.
I said I would like to continue, she could go back first if she would like to. Then continuing to the end of the path alone, I met our tour leader from Indonesia, it's safe, as he just arrived, so I won't be left by the group. It's true, it's very beautiful, so I took some more pictures, I really would like to stay longer, unfortunately we didn't have time anymore. Then I returned to the bus stop, on the way I met some of our friends who just went up. I informed them that it's beautiful to continue to the end of the path, so they ran to reach there.
There were some wishing bells hanging on the ceiling of the rest area next to the bus stop. It's good to become our shelter from the strong wind. We sat and chatted while waiting for the remaining of the group. We took photo group picture before leaving the The Amazing Rainbow Zhangye Danxia Landforms which became a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2010. The area has become a top tourist attraction for Zhangye. A series of boardwalks and access roads have been built to help visitors to explore the rock formations.
On the way to the parking lot, some of our friends still managed to buy snacks at the stalls decorating with animal statues like cow, camel, etc. The snack was quite unique too such as crispy mushroom and other type of mushrooms. I thought it's rare, so I didn't buy. I only tried sunflower seed from the real big sunflower, when my friend and I tasted it, we canceled to buy as it's still wet & tasteless, the cooked one is better with its savory and salty taste. Anyway if you like mushrooms, the price was cheap here and the quality was quite good, some friends bought many of them. If you'll go to Inner Mongolia, ensure to stop at Zhangye Colorful Danxia Scenic Spot, it's very amazing and unbelievable natural scenery.
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