Trying to cover the sites of the newly defined Guangzhou hotspot, I visited Danxiashan on my first full day in China. These red rocks dot the landscape to the North of Shaoguan. The site itself is quite popular with Chinese tourists. When it comes to foreigners this is a bit off the beaten path, but I ran into a group of exchange students.

Personally, I had expected more of a canyon or mountain range. But these are more individual rocks rising high above the river with interesting reddish shapes and forms. Chinese seem to take extra pleasure in interpreting these. Normally, I have a hard time seeing what is meant. For the most reknown rock formation (image) this wasn't hard at all.

Getting There

Similar to Frederik I went via bullet train from Guangzhou to Shaoguan. Following his instructions I also managed to catch the local bus to the bus terminal (2 RMB). At the bus terminal, though, my luck ran out as I did not manage to find the busses to Danxia.

Luckily several cab drivers recognized me as a tourist and figured there could only be one reason why I was in Shaoguan. There are shared cab services between Shaoguan and Danxiashan. In the end I settled for that option (100 RMB, 45min from bus terminal). I also used the shared cab to get back to Shaoguan as they were just lingering outside the main parking lot of Danxiashan and catching the proper bus would have required me to first go downt to the park entrance and seemed not worth the hassle. At 12€ I felt this was a bargain.

For my visit I grossly underestimated the time needed to get to the site. I had a 6h time window between arriving and departing from Shaoguan Station, but with transfers and some buffer I only had 2h on site. Still, this was enough to hike a bit into the site and see the most known rock formations.

If you are trying to do the same a few practical recommendations:

• The train from Guangzhou to Shaoguan was not full. So I could have reserved later than I did. Still bullet trains are really popular in China, so better to reserve ahead of time.
• Getting to Guangzhou South takes approximately 30min by metro if you are along metro line 2. You should also factor in the time needed to get through security and checkin. I would recommend being at the station 30min prior to departure. The departure floor in Guangzhou is upstairs (above the tracks that are in the middle floor); the bottom floor is only for arrivals. Follow the signs. Food and drinks are available after security, so no reason waiting downstairs.
• In Shaoguan you need to commute from the new shiny train station way outside of town to the old train station where the bus terminal is located. This is a pretty tedious ride that takes around 30-40min. I took bus line 22 by mapping the characters. It was also the bus that most people from the train queued for, so easy to spot. It may be easier to simply get a cab.
• At the bus terminals the shared cabs are located on the right hand side when facing the train station. On the left hand side are the numbered local busses. I also think the busses to Danxia also depart from the right hand side.

While You Are There

Shaoguan as town seemed rather uneventful. I hopped a train back to Guangzhou and from there to Guilin for the South China Karst. There is also a direct night train from Shaoguan to Guilin.

Notes

We don't have a phallic connection (yet?), but Danxiashan would be on it.