rainbow mountains china most beautiful places in the world

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The Inspiration: "I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse..." — Charlotte Brontë

The Place: The Rainbow Mountains in Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park; Gansu, China

The Reason to Go: What looks like a DIY sand art project is in fact a naturally occurring technicolor mountain range in the northwest region of China. The various colored stripes that ripple through the peaks are a result of centuries of tectonic shifts, climate change and erosion of red sandstone.