Here’s a repost, lightly edited, from 2018.

For today’s geopark, believe it or not, we need to start out on Mars!

“Yardang” doesn’t sound like a typical scientific term (in English, anyway), and it isn’t. It’s Ugyur for the same type of rock formation on Earth, and it was first used by geologists to describe these desert features near Dunhaung in China.

Today, this is a national geopark and may soon join the global UNESCO network.

In case it looks familiar, yes, this is where some of the most moving scenes in the 2002 movie Hero were filmed.

Featured image: lwtt93, CC BY 2.0