6/14/14

Tunnel of Love is a beautiful spot in Klevan, Ukraine. A three kilometer railway section leads to the fibreboard factory.
The train goes three times a day and delivers wood to the factory. However, the trees make a green corridor, which attracts many couples, as well as photographers for its eye catching avenue.
It is said that if you and your beloved come to the Tunnel of Love and sincerely make a wish, it will come true. This might be a new romantic place to discover.





6/11/14

Danaxia landforms are colourful rock formations at the Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park in Gansu Province, China. The landform is a unique type of petrographic geomorphology which is found only in China which consists of red-colored sandstones and conglomerates of largely Cretaceous age.

Research shows that about 100 million years ago, there used to be a huge inland basin here. Water carried silt from the surrounding mountains to the basin. As the result of global high temperatures the basin dried up and in these arid conditions the sediment oxidized and turned rust color. Then some 70 million years ago a 3,700-meter-thick red-colored layer formed on the basin, known as the chalk bed. On the top, there was a 1,300-meter-thick solid layer, i.e., layer of Cretaceous system, from which the peaks of Danxia Mountain gradually took shape.

Since 30 million years ago, orogenic movement has lifted the whole basin many times. Water flowing down through fissures cut through and eroded the sedimentary rock, the slope broke and receded, leaving behind the red fragmentary rocks we see now---Danxia landforms. According to experts, orogenic movement is still going on in the Danxia Mountain area, with an average rise of 0.87 meter every 10,000 years over the last 500,000 years. 

The area is fast becoming a popular tourist attraction for the sleepy town of Zhangye. A number of boardwalks and roads have been built to encourage visitors to explore the amazing rock formations. The World Heritage Committee decided to include China Danxia Landform in the World Heritage List at its 34th meeting being held in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, on August 1, 2010. 








Socotra is one of those “lost world” islands (separated from the world six million years ago) where intrepid travelers - particularly those seeking  exotic nature and wildlife in a remote tropical setting - can go days on end without rubbing shoulders with that less -than-endangered species…tourists.

Known for decades as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, it’s the world’s tenth richest island for endemic plant species. And the biggest island in the Middle East 125 kilometers in length and 45 kilometers across.

Meanwhile the landscape is one of contrasts, for example, it has isolated nature preserves with dazzling wildlife (including 900 species of plants, and the famous Dragon’s Blood Tree “dracaena cinnabara” and the some of rarest birds that exist nowhere else in the world), and picturesque sandy beaches.






6/3/14

Turquoise Ice in Northern Lake Baikal of Siberia,Russia. Lake Baikal, located in the southen Russian region of Siberia, Russia  it is an incerdible natural wonder of the world. It is the oldst freshwater lake on Earth and also one of the largest holding one-fifth of the world’s
freshwatr. During the winter, the Turquoise Ice cubes are formated on the top of the lake for about four months from January to april .when lake freezs over and the water is so clear that, from the surface you can see clearly 120 feet below you. this natural phenomenon occurs around a very specific time of year, March . Wind, temperature differencs, frost and sun in the ice crust cause cracks and ice humrocks to formShiny and transparent in a turquoise ice color, these huge peices broken ice are look like shards of glass rising into the sky. This lake is one of the world’s largest and oldest freshwater lakes.






Among the towering red dunes of Namib-Naukluft National Park in the central Namib Desert is an area known as Sossusvlei. It is a strange and alien landscape. The rich red dunes that surround the area owe their hue to age -- over the thousands of years, the sand has literally rusted.
Sossusvlei is a wide, flat, salt-covered expanse with a dense and compact layer of clay in the subsoil. When dry, Sossusvlei is hard and arid, and when wet, as it gets every 5-10 years when fed by the Tsauchab River, it becomes sticky and plastic. The area is the river's final destination. Even in the wettest of years, the water soaks into the salt/clay pan, giving the area its nickname: "place of no return." Altogether the blue sky, red dunes, and white pans make a striking vision, reminiscent of movies such as "The Fall," "The Cell," and "Steel Dawn."
Nearby is yet another "place of no return" this one even older, and much more dead than Sossusvlei. Known as Dead Vlei or "dead marsh" (Vlei being Afrikaans for a type of marsh), it is found among the tallest dunes in the world -- some reach 1,312 feet high, which is almost as lofty as the Empire State Building. Dead Vlei was once like Sossusvlei, with the river draining into it nourishing desert life and even trees. But no longer. Some 900 years ago the climate dried up, and dunes cut off Dead Vlei from the river.






Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone, and is considered to be the third largest in the world-New Zealand has the two largest springs. Grand Prismatic sits upon a wide, spreading mound where water flows evenly on all sides forming a series of small, stair-step terraces. The Hayden Expedition in 1871 named this spring because of its beautiful coloration, and artist Thomas Moran made water-color sketches depicting its rainbow-like colors. The sketches seemed exaggerations and geologist A.C. Peale returned in 1878 to verify the colors. The colors begin with a deep blue center followed by pale blue. Green algae forms beyond the shallow edge. Outside the scalloped rim a band of yellow fades into orange. Red then marks the outer border. Steam often shrouds the spring which reflects the brilliant colors. Grand Prismatic discharges an estimated 560 gallons per minute.