Situated at Pingjiang County, Yueyang, Hunan, the Shiniu Village National Geo-park is the biggest among all the newly-discovered Danxia landform in China. The Danxia landform refers to various landscapes found in southeast and southwest China that “consist of a red bed characterized by steep cliffs”. It is a unique type of petrographic geomorphology found in China. Danxia landform is formed from red-colored sandstones and conglomerates of largely Cretaceous age. Shiniu village scenic area lies at the cross of Hunan, Sichuan and Jiangxi Province, which is 65 kilometers away from Changsha.

It has a height of 523 meters and stretches over 10 square kilometers. Because there stands a huge stone that resembles a yellow cow to the west in the area, the place is also called Shiniuzhai (In Chinese, Shi means stone; niu means cow; zhai means stockade). In 2011, the geo-park was authorized as a national geo-park.

It is a representative park renowned for five kilometers precipice and 50 kilometers Danxia landform and an old stockaded village which is about a thousand year old. The geo-park owns beautiful and charming sights. It is a world made up of strange stones, unusual mountains and stone caves, different in thousands of ways, fantastic and breath-taking. With a rugged and steep geographical position, some people would call Shiniu Village as the “little Mount Hua” — Mount Hua is a very famous scenic spot in Shannxi, China. Besides, it is tinted with mystery with light red tops and dark brown cliffs.

Dawei Mountain National Forest Park is a large state forest park located about 148 kilometers from Changsha in Liuyang City. To get there, you can choose to take either the morning or the night bus from Changsha City, or alternatively you can head first to Liuyang City before hopping on one of the many buses headed for this attraction.

Dubbed the “Green Pearl of Eastern Hunan”, Dawei Mountain National Forest Park was set up in July 1992 under the approval of the Ministry of Forestry; it lives fully up to its moniker, with its breathtaking natural scenery and abundance of unrivalled, quiet beauty.

Home to 23 plant species, 17 tree species, 1,200 species of butterflies and 14 species of rare animals all under the government’s stringent protection, Dawei Mountain National Forest Park is nothing less than a natural animal and plant museum. To whet the animal lover's appetite, clouded leopard, pangolin and the Jiguan snake are present in the area.

Also considered sacred territory for the practicing of Buddhism, within the park you will find a total of 48 temples and temple ruins, some of which include the Yuquan Temple and the Honglian Temple. In summertime July, the temperatures average 23 degrees Celsius, making it most ideal for sightseeing all 91 places of interest within the park.

Mt. Hengshan, also known as Southern Heights Mountain (Nanyue shan), is located about 120km south of Changsha. It is one of the five sacred Buddhist mountains in China, although much of the mountain is also dedicated to Taoist belief. The mountain extends for 80 kilometers and there are a total of 72 peaks in all, the highest of which, the Wishing for Harmony Peak (Zhurong feng), rises to 1,298 meters above sea level. This is a pretty area, that is sometimes a little too popular, although filled with enough charming Buddhist and Taoist temples, some dating back over 1000 years, and pretty scenery to make it worth your while.