Best places to enjoy red maple leaves in Hunan

When it comes to autumn, people naturally associate it with rough winds and humid heat, while this is not the case in Hunan Province. The late autumn sees a more gorgeous Hunan, a land embellished with scarlet maple leaves, emerald ancient trees, placid water and red stone forests.

According to physics, red has the lowest frequency in the visible light spectrum and is the strongest one among colors that can penetrate obstacles. Therefore, it is the most typical color of autumn in Hunan Province.

Yuelu Mountain in Changsha 

Maple leaves in Yuelu Mountain represent the most striking red in Hunan. The leaves start to turn red from late October and will last for about a month. The mid-November is the best time to admire red maple leaves in Yuelu Mountain.

You can admire the bronze statue of Mao Zedong at Orange Isle and then enjoy the beautiful maple leaves in Yuelue Mountain.

Golden Whip Stream in Zhangjiajie 

Golden Whip Stream gains its fame because of Golden Whip Rock. It is one of the top ten scenic spots in Zhangjiajie and was a shooting place for the TV series “Journey to the West” (1983). Owing to its picturesque scenery, Shen Congwen, a well-known writer, praised it as “a fairy maiden of Zhangjiajie, and Wu Guanzhong, a famous painter, hailed it as “a wonderland”.

When winding your way through thick forests and tranquil valley, you will be greatly impressed by the flame-like maple leaves along the bank of the stream.  

Jiemuxi Township in Yuanling County, Huaihua

With the arrival of late autumn, Jiemuxi Township is carpeted with scarlet maple leaves, toon trees, Chinese tallow trees, yellow sycamore and ginkgo leaves.

Jiemuxi Township is home to a second-level national protected plant called acer griseum, which is red from roots to leaves.

Paiya Mountain National Forest Park

Paiya Mountain National Forest Park gains the name “排牙” for its undulating peaks laying orderly like teeth. The park boasts a vast expanse of mountains, a crisscross network of creeks and rich vegetation, with the forest coverage rate of 87.29%. It is therefore hailed as “a land of greenness” and “natural oxygen bar” in southwestern Hunan.

Autumn is the best season for travel. The land which is embellished with metasequoia trees tinged with scarlet red and misty resembles a scroll of traditional Chinese painting.

Guzhang Stone Forest

Stone forest, which is mostly seen in Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, is a kind of karst landform, most of which is gray. However, Guzhang Stone Forest is red, the only one in China. It can be traced back to about 500 million years ago when the world was a vast body of water.

Here you can see the traces of ancient creatures such as trilobites, hornworms, and nuatilus of 500 million years ago. In the sun, the stone forest in layers sparks off flame-like red.

Gaoyi Ridge

Danxia (丹霞) in Chinese means red. Scarlet red is the main color of Danxia landform. Chengzhou City is home to the most amazing Danxia landscape. Gaoyi Bridge is the most shining example for its treacherous mountains, winding streams, and thus become a resort of recreation and photography.