Dongchuan Red Land 東川紅土地, located 40km southeast side of Kunming city, were referred by photographers and tourists as "colour palette spilled by God". We managed to stay at this highland for 3 days 2 nights and yet we wish we could've extend our stay because this place is so serene and the sceneries were impressive. (but mainly because we couldn't get any good shots due to the weather T_T)
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| cold morning with heavy mist |
Unlucky us, it started raining the day we arrive, hence it was gloomy throughout our whole stay. Cold weather between 10-15 degree celsius, heat techs and jackets are a must. Gloomy weather kinda dulls the colour contrast of red soils and plantation, with no sun or clouds as background, we are kinda disappointed that we're unable to witness the beautiful oil-painting like sceneries like Van Gogh's painting.
But who says earthy tones can't be as beautiful as well?
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| look at the colours of red soil and plantations, with white colour houses really looks like paintings ain't it? |
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| September is rapeseed flower season! Super dreamy! My very first time seeing sea of flowers. |
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| white rapeseed flowers are a bit rare to come by, most of the rapeseed flowers are yellow in colour |
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| close up of dewy rapeseed flowers |
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| rapeseed are rich in oil, they're cultivated as third largest source as vegetable oils worldwide. |
Dongchuan Red Land is well known for its beautiful scenery, and different season you may encounter different type of beauty, I guess this is what drives tourists and photographers obsessed with this place. You may ask: which is the best viewpoint for Dongchuan Red Land? Here's a brief map of it:
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| (click to enlarge or save it for future usage) |
Best place to stay: Chun Qiu Da Jiu Dian 春秋大酒店
Located just 10 mins walk from Luo Xia Gou 落霞溝 (one of the best viewpoint in my opinion), this 3 floors hotel is probably one of the best you can get around Dongchuan. Equivalent to a 2/3stars hotel, this hotel provides hot water, private bathroom with toiletries, comfortable bed, TV and wifi. Most importantly, located beside one of the best viewpoint, you can visit Luo Xia Gou anytime, especially when the weather is as fickle as a child's emotion, you don't want to miss it when the sun decides to show up for a short period.
Viewpoints:
- Luo Xia Gou 落霞溝
- Da Ma Kan 打馬坎
- Yue Pu Ao 樂譜凹
- Qi Cai Po 七彩坡
- Qian Nian Lao Long Shu 千年老龍樹
Luo Xia Gou 落霞溝:
This is the first viewpoint we went without knowing it's the best viewpoint.
We arrived the hotel at 4 something late afternoon, and was told to be back at hotel by 6:30pm for dinner. As we walk further into the villages, we were so afraid to walk pass the houses because we scared dogs or geese might attack us (goose can be very nasty and attack people!). Hence we spent a lot of time dilly dallying in front of the houses trying to get pass the geese without being attack, luckily a girl who works at the hotel we were staying passes by and we followed her quickly.
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| Entrance of Luo Xia Gou, through this small village, let's go! |
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| I wonder if it's poisonous? |
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| These two culprits blocked our way and wasted our precious time! Why are we so afraid of geese omg! (My mum was attacked by goose when she was young and she told me it was super painful bitten by them) |
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| on the contrary, these farm ducks are so cute! |
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| Having the road all by myself |
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| beautiful pink and white flowers blooming at roadside |
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| Roadside scenery while we're walking towards Luo Xia Gou |
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| Thank god for this trench coat by Atelier Prive Melson, the weather was cold and this coat is just perfect to keep me warm! |
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| Finally, we reached Luo Xia Gou viewpoint..... parking lol I can't imagine if it was a sunny day, the scenery is gonna be so stunning I bet! |
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| Close up shot, using 12-100mm M.Zuiko Pro Lens |
And guess what, we made a funny mistake by not walking further into the area from carpark that evening where the good stuff are at! There's an actual walkway that leads to a viewing point firmly built at side of the hill for tourists and photographers. Weather got really bad for the next two days, hence on the day we're leaving Dongchuan, we're still unable to take a glance of Luo Xia Gou's full glory view.
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| Sigh, kinda disappointed that the mist were too heavy since our arrival boohoo |
Da Ma Kan 打馬坎
Sunrise of Dongchuan red land is a must see must do things if you ever visit this place, but I wish you better luck than us because for 2 consecutive mornings, we wake up at 5am, found the sky's drizzling and yet we head to the Da Ma Kan viewpoint nonetheless, with hopes the sky will turn clear by sunrise.
It did not.
Damn.
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| Rainy morning of Dongchuan is so gloomy I just had to take silly photos like this. |
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| I really love this photo. It gives me an isolated, out of this world kinda vibes. |
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| no sun for us boohoo |
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| I'll never know how Dongchuan sunrise will look like T_T |
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| I'm kinda fascinated with windmill actually |
Qian Nian Lao Long Shu 千年老龍樹
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| Thousand year old tree |
This thousand year old tree is believe to guard the lands of Dongchuan red land, bringing prosperity to all the villagers of Dongchuan. It got struck by lightning many years back, been dead for 3 years but revived and now, standing tall and proud on this hilltop, overlooking everyone around Dongchuan with much elegance.
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| I'm coming to visit you old tree after I take some photo here! |
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| passing through rapeseed flower fields to get to the hilltop |
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| I'm wondering what the tree had witnessed, stood there for thousand years |
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| more rapeseed flowers fields when we're heading back to our bus |
Qi Cai Po 七彩坡
Qi Cai Po, which literally means Seven Colour Hills, shows us only earthy tones during our visit. The gloomy weather dulls the colour of red soils, trees and flowers, creating another type of vibes to all the photos I took. I've done research on photos of Dongchuan and have yet saw the same vibes of photography that I've took. I guess Dongchuan really does have its many faces towards different people.
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| Everyday life of a farmer with his cute cows |
Yue Pu Ao 樂譜凹
Another famous viewpoint of Dongchuan, this valley is famous for its beautiful scenery with white houses located at its side and colourful valley of fields due to different types of plantation. I guess this is a must visit viewpoint as well because there are many tourists around when we reach this location. Do walk all the way down and get some nice photos without people photobombing you at the back.
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| Don't know about you but this scenery makes me believe I'm in Northern Europe or something Maybe it's my editing lololol |
It ain't easy travel to a new country, to be totally honest, I even felt a bit paranoia these days whenever I think of traveling: coping to new weather, new environment, new food, new people, packing, conceptualising shooting ideas, editing, all these really stresses me out and I often get insomnia days before my flight. Travel to more places really changes me, both physically and mentally.
Sorry for ending a blog post with such gloomy tones, but it is through traveling I realised my responsibility as a person, as a blogger, as an instagrammer, as a social media influencer, that I need to fulfil requirements to deliver quality contents to my readers/followers. I do hope I can achieve something more down this journey and I hope you'll have fun when I share all my ups and downs to you.
All photos taken with:
Olympus OMD EM1 Mark ii
M.Zuiko PRO lens 12-100mm F2.8
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| Here's a selfie from me and Fei to lighten up the mood of this blog post! Have a good day! |
All photos taken with:
Olympus OMD EM1 Mark ii
M.Zuiko PRO lens 12-100mm F2.8
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