Luoxiagou

Luoxiagou is one of the places on earth that is hard to believe exists. The internet community has debated its reality, and its sweeping palette of farmland has dropped the jaws of many pragmatists, convinced the landscape has been photoshopped. But it hasn’t. Luoxiagou, a small village in the Dongchuan Red Land, is actually that colorful, and that breathtaking, and truly exists in southern China.

The area earned the name “Red Land” due to its striking colors. The base color of the earth in Luoxiagou is tinted with oxidized iron. Nearly saturated with the mineral, the dirt has taken on a dark brown and reddish hue. Yet the soil is only the beginning of the fantastic countryside.

Some 26,00 feet above sea level, an ocean of farmland and white flowers grow from farmland splotched with patches of oxidized red dirt. Without much infrastructure or government organization, the region is largely comprised of unaffiliated farmers who plant individual crops on the terraced slopes of the province. Although the lack of organization has left the area underdeveloped, it has also caused the stark differences in color and crop in the swimming farmland of Luoxiagou, and has made the land a stunning natural portrait.