Jianglangshan looks as though somebody took a giant knife to a block of red sandstone and left three slices standing. The Three Sisters, tall, narrow slabs of rock rising well over three hundred metres above the valley, are the icon of the site, and the cliffs behind them, steep and layered in warm reds and browns, are typical of the landform called Danxia. The word means rosy clouds, and the landscape is a kind of red-bed desert eroded by wind and rain into peaks, gorges and walls. UNESCO listed a group of Danxia sites in south China in 2010, and Jianglangshan, in Zhejiang, is one of the six.
Geologists describe Danxia as red sandstone and conglomerate laid down in ancient basins, then uplifted and cut by streams into sheer-sided towers and ridges. At Jianglangshan, the Lang peak and the nearby cliffs are cut by a very narrow cleft called Yixiantian, the line of sky, where the walls rise so close that only a thread of light reaches the bottom. The vegetation is subtropical, with evergreen forest on the slopes, bamboo, and ferns in the damp gorges, and the mix of red rock and dark green leaves is striking.
The area is in the hilly border country of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian, a region of tea terraces, bamboo forest and small villages, where the land is rolling and the rivers are clear. The weather is humid, with a long rainy season in spring and plum rains in early summer, and typhoon remnants in late summer. Autumn is the best season for clear skies and good walking.
The second leg of this ride heads west to the Gaoling mining site near Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital, where the white clay called kaolin was dug for centuries. The name kaolin comes from Gaoling, which means high ridge, and European potters borrowed the word when they learned to make porcelain. A bike ride in this part of China takes you through green hills and past old kiln villages, though visitors who want to ride in China need to check the rules on licences and registration, which are strict and change. Fuel is available in the larger towns on the route, and meals are simple and good, with river fish, bamboo shoots and cured ham.