LEXIAGUO - Vibrant soil and a canvas of crops create China's "Red Land"

Lexiaguo is one of the places on earth that is hard to believe exists. The internet community has debated its reality, and its sweeping palette of farmland has dropped the jaws of many pragmatists, convinced the landscape has been photoshopped. But it hasn't. Lexiaguo is actually that colorful, and that breathtaking, and truly exists in Southern China.

Known as the "Red Land" due to its striking colors, the base color of the earth in Lexiaguo is tinted with oxidized iron. Nearly saturated with the mineral, the dirt has taken on a dark brown and reddish hue. Yet the soil is only the beginning of the fantasy-countryside.

2600 feet above sea level atop the soil is an ocean of farmland and white flowers, splotched with patches of oxidized red dirt. Without much infrastructure or government organization, the region is largely comprise of unaffiliated farmers who plant individual crops on the terraced slopes of the province. Although the lack of organization has left the area underdeveloped, it has also caused the stark differences in color and crop in the swimming farmland of Lexiaguo, and has made the land a stunning natural portrait.

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The Stone Forest (Shilin) - China

In China’s Yunnan Province is the famous stone topography of Shilin, meaning “stone forest.” Covering an area of three-hundred square kilometers (or 186 miles) the stone forest is a massive otherworldly landscape of karst formations over 270 million years old. Over the millennia seismic activity and water and wind erosion have carved the present-day limestone formations.

The giant stalagmite-like pillars create huge arrays of labyrinths that are easy to become lost in. Shillin is divided into many smaller stone forests and features caves, waterfalls, ponds, a lake with an island, and even an underground river. Two of the smaller individual stone forests, Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village, are a part of the South China Karst, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One of Shillin’s most famous attractions is the Ashima Stone, which legend says was formed after the beautiful Sani girl, Ashima, ran into the forest and was turned to stone after being forbidden to marry the man she loved. Every year on June 24 the local Sani people hold the time-honored Torch Festival at Shilin, which features many “traditional performances such as wrestling, bull fighting, pole-climbing, dragon-playing, lion-dancing, and the A-xi Moon Dance.”

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