By most accounts 250 kilometers northeast of Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan Province, lies Dongchuan, a country zone with the world's most forcing red earth. Spread over limitless terraced fields, Dongchuan's unordinary earthy red color originates from its rich store of iron and copper. Laid open to the warm and muggy atmosphere of Yunnan, the iron in the dirt experiences oxidization to structure iron oxide which is characteristically red in shade.
These oxides, kept through numerous years, steadily formed into the unprecedented ruddy brown soil seen here today. Consistently amid spring, when this zone is furrowed for farming, countless and photographic artists come to see squares of newly upturned red earth holding up to be sown alongside zones of sprouting green plants. The searing red soil compared with emerald green grain, and brilliant yellow buckwheat, against a blue sky delivers one of the wealthiest shade sense of taste seldom seen in nature.
Reportedly, the existence of Dongchuan was unknown to the outside world until the mid-1990s, when a Chinese photographer chanced upon the place. The story goes that the photographer kept the location a secret and continued to produce photographs that awed his audience. Details about the secret place eventually leaked and now more and more photographers are making arduous trip into the mountains to get first-hand experience of this amazing place.
The Red Earth Terraces Of Dongchuan In China
Source : China Travel