Published on October 20, 2013 at 20:23

Life is like a journey, do not care about the destination, care about the scenery along the way and the mood to see the scenery!

Yadan landform of Dunhuang is a part of ancient Lop Nur. In this magical land of Dunhuang, nature has created many wonders. Dunhuang Yadan is located at the junction of Xinjiang and Gansu, more than 80 kilometers northwest of Yumenguan. There is a typical Yadan landform community with orderly layout and peculiar shape. It is a rare natural Sculpture Museum. It can be called another wonder of Dunhuang. It is a wonderful natural masterpiece of nature.

To visit this scenic spot, you must take a unified bus, and then pull to the scenic spot. After a limited time, you can get on the bus and go to the next scenic spot. That is to say, you are not allowed to walk freely inside. I think it's also for the sake of safety!

Yadan landform in Dunhuang is hard and light red. It is about 15 kilometers long from east to west and 2 kilometers wide from north to south, forming a strong contrast with the blue Gobi desert, which is particularly eye-catching against the background of blue sky and white clouds. When you enter Yadan, you will encounter the wind and the sound of ghosts. You can't go out at night. Local people commonly call Yadan "ghost city".

As a whole, it looks like an ancient castle in the middle ages. This strange castle is the result of geological changes, natural wind carving and sand cutting. It is a masterpiece of nature. The whole Yadan landform group is different in height, scattered and orderly in layout. Castle walls, streets, buildings, squares, sculptures. It's just like an ingenious designer.

Each Yadan landform has its own form, with a variety of strange and vivid shapes. Like pagodas, like palaces, like wheat stacks, like golden peacocks, like eagles, like fleets, like warriors, like graceful beauties.

Here, the strange landscape of Yadan will make you relaxed and happy, let your thoughts fly, and let your imagination fly; Here you can expand your imagination and appreciate the wonderful beauty created by nature.

Drive from Dunhuang City, pass through a large area of Gobi desert, and arrive at the famous Yumen pass about an hour later. Then drive 85 km westward along the Shule River Valley, which used to be the ancient Silk Road. Along the way, the great wall of the Han Dynasty and the Fengsui site can be seen, with swamps and meadows, reeds growing on the lake bank, waterfowl playing on the lake, wild ducks, wild geese, swans and other waterfowl flapping the water and flying to the blue sky from time to time. In the deep desert, Apocynum venetum, red willow, Populus euphratica and camel thorn weave a pleasing picture. Gradually, the marshes dried up, the meadows disappeared, the valley was obliterated by the Gobi desert, and the vast sea was around. Soon, you will find that on the flat river bed, mounds and peaks stand abruptly, like "buildings" lying in rows, some like buildings, some like churches, some like mosques, some like yurts; Even the temple of heaven in Beijing, the Potala Palace in Tibet, the pyramids in Egypt, the Sphinx and other world-famous buildings can be found here in miniature. The lion in the desert, the camel team on the Silk Road, the sea of turtles and clouds, and the mainstay are vivid and lifelike. It's like entering the exhibition hall of architectural art.

When you enter the Yadan landform group at different times, you feel completely different. In the morning, when you walk into Yadan landform, when the rising sun rises to the East, you can look into the distance, with a little bit of dawn, golden light, and a myriad of meteorology; At noon, I walked into the Yadan landform. The sun was shining high above my head, and there were many strange shadows around me. The strange Yadan group seemed to be surrounded by smoke everywhere; In the evening, when you enter the Yadan group, the huge red sun goes down to the west, the wind around you is gentle, and the glow on your head is brilliant.

The Yadan landform in Dunhuang has a large area and unique shape. As geological experts say, "the Yadan landform of Dunhuang has been formed for a long time, with its peculiar and diverse landforms, large scale and high artistic taste, which can be called the only desert Geological Museum in the world.

Yadan refers to a special landform in dry area. In the beginning, there was a platform shaped highland composed of bedrock in the desert, in which joints or fissures developed, and the Yadan landform of desert river.

Scour widens joints or fissures. Once there is an opportunity, the wind erosion begins to take effect. Due to the continuous erosion of the wind, the wind erosion gullies and depressions gradually separate from the isolated island like platform hills, and the latter evolved into stone pillars or stone piers.

Tourists to such a place, like to a decadent ancient city; The crisscross wind erosion Valley is the street, the stone pillars and stone piers are the buildings built along the street, and the ground forms a scene like dragon ridges and castles.

Such a "city" is called the ghost city, also known as the "dragon city" in ancient books. In the Qaidam Basin and Junggar basin, there are ghost cities, some of which are quite amazing.

Stone pillars (as mentioned earlier, some of them are wind-induced) continue to be eroded by the wind and become various shapes. If the rock is nearly horizontal and hard and soft rock alternate, the soft rock is easy to be eroded, and the hard rock is relatively prominent, like the eaves, it is called stone eaves. If the soft and hard layers are steeply inclined, the jagged Yardang terrain will be formed.

If the rock under the pillar is soft and hard, and the sand carried by the wind at the lower part is large and coarse, while the sand carried by the wind at the higher part is small and small, the wind erosion and abrasion effect on the upper and lower parts of the pillar shows obviously different results: the lower part becomes very fine, like a mushroom handle, and the upper part becomes a mushroom umbrella, forming a mushroom stone.

As a result, the handle of the mushroom is also denuded. The mushroom umbrella is located on the bedrock with only a small contact area. It looks wobbly and is called rocking stone.

Under the cooperation of spherical weathering, two large round ancient rocks in the middle of winter touch each other only by one tangent point. The above boulders seem to be able to move by the wind, which is called wind rock, such as granite wind rock in Dongshan Island, Fujian Province.

The appearance of the earth is the result of the interaction of internal and external forces, which is commonly known as internal and external factors. The endogenic forces of landforms are the response of the earth's internal structure changes on the surface, while there are many types of exogenic forces, the most important of which are water and wind.

For many years, Yadan has been interpreted as a kind of wind erosion landform in geography books and textbooks. It is believed that the formation of Yadan is the result of wind erosion, which is similar to another kind of wind erosion landform desert landform. In fact, this is not accurate. Wind is by no means all the external forces that form Yadan.

There are various types of Yadan with different shapes, but the formation process is roughly similar. At first, it was the weathering of the surface. Luobu depression used to be a large lake, and the lacustrine sediments left behind were formed in the geological years. The repeated water inflow and retreat once made the bottom of the lake form a layer of mud and sand, and another layer of mud and another layer of sand crisscross into a layer structure.

The structure of mudstone layer is compact and hard, which is not easy to be eroded by wind and water, but it can not resist the effect of temperature difference. When traveling in Luobu wasteland, you often hear the sudden sound of "clapping", sometimes like firecrackers, sometimes like wolf howling. No wonder monk Faxian, who was walking here in those days, was so creepy that he said "there are many evil spirits in the Shahe". Li Daoyuan also called this place "few birds and many ghosts" in Shuijing notes.

In fact, this kind of "evil spirits" and "ghosts" are caused by Yadan. Lop Nur is located in an extremely arid area, and the temperature difference between day and night varies sharply, often up to 30 ℃ ° C～40 ° C or above. The effect of thermal expansion and cold contraction makes the exposed rock crack and make a sound. Even the so-called "indomitable" granite can only be indomitable in this climate and gradually disintegrate into pieces, not to mention mudstone!

However, mudstone will not break up in blocks like granite, because its structure is lamellar, and the cracking is also peeling off layer by layer, forming many horizontal or vertical appearances, which gradually exposed the sand layer sandwiched between mudstone layers to the surface, creating conditions for the second stage of Yadan formation.

After the weathering and destruction of the surface, the wind and water have become the targets of ravages. Under the wind erosion or water erosion, the loose sand layer between the mudstone layers on the surface was gradually transported to the distance, and the original flat surface became undulating and concave and convex, and the rudiment of Yadan landform was born.

The rudiment of Yadan is more favorable to weathering and denudation. After the sand layer is exposed, the wind, water and other external forces continue to exert the effect, making the low-lying part further deepen and expand; The part protruding from the surface is relatively stable due to the protection of mudstone layer, but the exposed loose sand layer is eroded, thus creating a variety of strange shapes. So far, Yadan landform was finally formed.

Naturally, after the formation of Yadan, it is impossible to maintain its original appearance once and for all, because the role of external forces, including wind and water, will never end, and Yadan's appearance will always change. As the erosion continues, the depressions will become larger and larger, while the raised mounds will shrink and gradually isolate, and eventually collapse and disappear. This situation can be found everywhere in the Aqike Valley on the East Bank of Lop Nur, which indicates that the Yadan landform has passed its peak period here and started to die out.

When Chen zongqi, a Chinese scholar, inspected Lop Nur in the 1930s, he divided the Yadan landform into two types and named them respectively: one is less than 1 meter high and formed in a relatively shallow age, which is called "Yadan"; The other is 10-30 meters high, with an ancient age, and is called "maisai". In fact, these two types are only the primary stage and advanced stage of Yadan.

China's Yadan landform covers an area of more than 20000 square kilometers, mainly distributed in the northwest of Qaidam Basin, Qinghai, the middle and lower reaches of Shule River and around Lop Nur, Xinjiang. The Yadan landform in Xinjiang is only 3000-4000 square kilometers, with a small scale. The typical Yadan is 4-5 meters high, and the 10-20 meters high Yadan is also called mesa, or square platform. The Yadan group in the tebes wasteland of the Chadian basin in Africa covers the largest area, about 260000 square kilometers. The tallest Yadan is located in the southeast of the lute desert in Iran, with an area of about 20000 square kilometers. Yadan is 200 meters high and the wind erosion Valley is 500 meters wide. Yadan extends like a ridge, several kilometers to more than ten kilometers long.

Let me take them to the Mogao Grottoes to take a group photo with them. As a result, chatting missed time and became the last tourist to get on the bus.

The ancient haiyadan of Dunhuang is 20-100 meters high, belonging to the large and medium-sized Yadan group, and the wind erosion Valley is narrow, the Yadan shape is rich and colorful, and the high-density type is rare in the world. It is very close to Dunhuang, convenient transportation, with excellent geographical advantages, is a treasure of tourism and scientific research.

From the northeast of Anxi County 265 kilometers to Jiayuguan City, along the way the Gobi scenery is unique. Among them, bulongji Township, 45 kilometers to the east of the county, is a typical Yadan landform with wind erosion beaches with different shapes and crisscross teeth on both sides of the highway. Yadan landform is named after the wind erosion landform in Yadan area near Lop Nur.

Due to tens of millions of years of wind and sun, the flat sandstone layer in the bulongji area has formed various landforms, such as wind erosion walls, wind erosion mushrooms, wind erosion columns, wind erosion ridges and grooves, wind erosion depressions, residual hills, castles and so on. Anxi county is known as the "wind reservoir of the world". It is located in a narrow corridor between the two mountains. The altitude is only 1170 meters, and the terrain is low and flat

When the air flows in, the narrow tube plays a role in accelerating the airflow movement, so it often forms strong wind. For a long time, sandstorm has endangered the life of Anxi residents and 3000 mu of cultivated land. There are six desert strongholds in the county, covering an area of more than 300000 mu. This kind of strong wind weather often makes the posture of Yadan landform change greatly, with different shapes.

In China's inland deserts, there is a unique geographical landscape, which is a geomorphic combination of a series of intermittently extended long strip-shaped mounds and concave trenches, known as Yadan landform. In the last century, when foreign and junior high school scholars conducted a joint investigation in Lop Nur, they found this peculiar landform near the ancient Loulan in the northwest of Lop Nur. They named it after the Uygur people, and then translated it back into Chinese to become "Yadan landform".

Yadan landform can be found in many arid areas in the world, and it is not limited to Xinjiang in China. The road from Yuka in Qinghai to the south of Xinjiang is very desolate. The "Yadan landform" can be seen between Nanbaxian and Yiliping highway, which is the largest distribution area of "Yadan landform" in the northwest inland;

In addition to the Yadan landforms in Lop Nur and guloulan, the "ghost city" in Karamay and the "wind city" in Qitai are also typical Yadan landforms.

"Yadan" is a Uyghur language, which originally means "hill with steep wall", and later refers to the combination of wind erosion ridge, mound, wind erosion groove and depression. The lacustrine plain and alluvial plain in arid areas are often cracked due to shrinkage. Under the long-term erosion of directional wind, the cracks gradually expand into grooves, and ridges up to 5-10 meters often appear between the grooves. This landform is most typical in Lop Nur area of Tarim Basin in China.

In the morning, when you walk into Yadan landform, when the rising sun rises to the East, you can look into the distance, with a little bit of dawn, golden light, and a myriad of meteorology;

At noon, I walked into the Yadan landform. The sun was shining high above my head, and there were many strange shadows around me. The strange Yadan group seemed to be surrounded by smoke everywhere;

In the evening, when you enter the Yadan group, the huge red sun goes down to the west, the wind around you is gentle, and the glow on your head is brilliant.

You can't see any plants here. There are black stone sand sea everywhere. Yellow clay statues. All kinds of shapes are vivid under the blue sky.

In the past, due to the vast Gobi and dangerous roads, few people set foot here. Dunhuang people also had many ears and few eyes. With the construction of Yumenguan and Yadan ghost city highway by Dunhuang sun tourism group, the conditions for the appearance of this geographical wonder were created.

Living in the vast Gobi, the strong northwest wind blows away the gauze on the surface of the Gobi, leaving only the bluish gray coarse sand particles, which makes its surface show the bluish waves. The ancient city castles of earthy yellow stand on the bluish gray Gobi, with blue sky and white clouds, which is enchanting.

If you climb on the top of a tall castle and look down, it's as if countless islands stand on the rough sea. It's really like a rainbow of momentum

When you are in this large-scale "ancient city", there is a kind of shocking power. The sky is so high, the ground is so wide, and people are so small. It's hard to express that kind of magical feeling.

This "ancient city" in different times, different weather conditions, you will feel its different looks. At noon, the whirlwind on the Gobi rolled up a few columns of "desert smoke" and scurried around the "city". The mirage in the desert was like smoke, and the vast sea made the whole "Yadan ghost city" floating in it. It made visitors feel like they were in heaven, like a dream.

As the sun sets, the vast sea gradually recedes. The bloody setting sun puts a touch of gold on the Yadan ghost city, and then turns orange. The splendor of the golden wall shows some mystery and some solemnity, which makes visitors forget to return and cause endless reverie.

The two donkey friends I met by chance are also photo controllers. Along the way, the three of us are always the people who drive the car at the latest.

I think their photography itself is a kind of scenery.

Is it a strange beauty for a weak woman to walk calmly in the strange and wild devil city.

I said before that this female donkey friend has a heroic style. Do you think that's the case.

This scenic spot is just for ten thousand ships to go to sea. The neat rows of hills were like warships going out to sea.

It's said that it turned out to be a magnificent castle. The men in the castle are handsome and strong, and the women in the castle are beautiful and kind. The people in the castle work hard and live a carefree life.

It's said that it turned out to be a magnificent castle. The men in the castle are handsome and strong, and the women in the castle are beautiful and kind. The people in the castle work hard and live a carefree life.

God told people that it was evil that made him become a beggar from a rich man. However, the beggar's words didn't work. Instead, they were insulted and ridiculed by the people in the castle. In a rage, the God turned this place into ruins, and all the people in the castle were crushed under the ruins. Every night, the dead cry in the castle, hoping that the gods can hear the voice of their repentance

It turns out that there are also heroes in my modeling! what the hell.

Dunhuang has a very arid continental climate with an average annual temperature of 9.3 ℃ and 24.7 ℃ in July and - 9.3 ℃ in January. The whole year is dry and rainless, and the temperature difference between day and night is great. In addition, there are two natural disasters in Dunhuang: dry hot wind and black sandstorm. Visitors should take precautions as early as possible. The best time to travel is from May to October every year.

These three rooms are the accommodation for the staff of the tourist center, which is the home. This is really like a cave on a high loess slope.

After more than an hour's tour, I went back to the entrance again. Looking back, I had the feeling of Western America.

See the jacket I'm holding? It's my favorite jacket. It was the last time I saw him.

In the next photo, I left my jacket on the ground and forgot to take it when I came back. He stayed in devil city forever.

The next travel notes is: 34 days in Dunhuang