A rare large stone forest, located at the intersections of the Yellow River and the Great Wall in northwest China's Gansu Province opened to tourists recently.

Covering an area of 10 square kilometers, the Yellow River Stone Forest is located at Laolongwan (Old Dragon Bay) Village in Jingtai County, Gansu Province. Made of yellow gravel, it was the magic creation of nature in more than 4 million years.

Looking from the terrace standing at the entrance, you see a magnificent landscape of river, stone forest, desert and oasis. It looks even more beautiful when mist lingering on the slopes of the Qilian Mountains on the opposite bank of the Yellow River serves as its backdrop. The sunshine casts the whole valley in dark red, making it appear like the Grand Canyon in the United States.

It was reported that the Yellow River Stone Forest was discovered by a fieldwork team of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources in 1990 and announced to the public in 1996. Due to inconvenient transport, however, it remained beyond tourists' reach until a road was completed recently.

(China.org.cn by Wang Zhiyong on December 19, 2002)