Datong Earth Forest
Datong Earth Forest is a unique natural landscape located in Duzhuang Village, Yunzhou District, Datong City, Shanxi Province. It is known as the "City of Devils" on the Loess Plateau. After a long period of wind and water erosion, a unique landform was formed that looks like a castle but is not a castle, like a sculpture but not a sculpture. It is the only earth forest in North China, famous for its unique loess earth forest landscape, showing the tenacity and strength of the Loess Plateau.
The formation of the Datong Earth Forest is due to the repeated cycle of surface water erosion, soil weathering, and salt and alkali precipitation, gradually forming earth ditches, and eventually evolving into the geological wonder of the earth forest. The earth walls and earth pillars in the earth forest gather together, and the elements such as calcium and iron in the soil interact with sunlight to form an unparalleled colorful image of the earth forest. The beauty of the earth forest lies in its gorgeous colors, which change between morning and evening, sometimes golden, sometimes red like flames, sometimes dark like an abyss, and sometimes white like frost fields, giving people a dreamlike feeling.
The earth forest has various shapes, with earth platforms, earth pillars, earth cliffs, and earth ridges of different sizes, either hanging alone, arranged in rows, graceful, or vigorous, showing the beauty of desolation and solemnity. The value of the earth forest lies in its rarity, as there are few earth forests, similar to the Yadan landform, and it is eroded by wind and rivers, making it a natural textbook of geological landforms, known as the "sedimentology laboratory" in North China.
Datong Earth Forest is not only a natural wonder but also a popular science base for natural resources in China, a natural laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, a famous tourist attraction in Shanxi Province, as well as a national education and research base for primary and secondary school students, and a creative base for the China Photographers Association and China Tourism Photography Network. The earth forest is precious in geology and geography due to its special landform.
The landscape of the earth forest is changeable, and being in it, you can feel the magnificent changes of the earth. In the southwest corner of the earth forest, there is a reservoir surrounded by lush green grass, and the coexistence of the lake and the earth forest makes the Datong Earth Forest look vibrant and modern. Under different lighting conditions, the earth forest changes into rich layers and colors, which is the difference between the Datong Earth Forest and the general loess gullies.
Datong Earth Forest is a place worth visiting, attracting many tourists and photography enthusiasts with its unique natural landscape and geological value.