A video of three people, including a foreigner, illegally entering a no-entry geological protection area in northwestern China, aroused netizens' anger online and were criticized by the police.

The incident happened at the Longzhou Danxia Landform Scenic Area in Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province, the province's biggest Danxia landform geological park. Danxia landforms are a rarely-seen geological landscape, delicate and hard to recover if damaged.

In the video, the three first entered a Danxia landform area with a "no entry" signboard, and then stepped into another area protected by fences under the guide of a local villager, before they trampled and climbed in the protection areas.

After the investigation, police found that the man who uploaded the video online, the cameraman and the Ukraine woman in the video did not cause major damage to the landscape.

Since the three people recognized that their actions were wrong, the police decided on Thursday to detain the villager guide, criticized the three and asked them to make public apology on media platforms online.

The Longzhou Danxia Landform Scenic Area, a basin covering an area of more than 20 square kilometers, is a typical red sandstone Danxia landform in China's arid region.

The red sandstones were originally covered by heavy loess. After tens of millions of years of wind force and rain wash, they gradually formed into wavy patterns and strange stones. The red sandstone can change into different colors under different weather conditions, which has both high scientific research value and ornamental value.

(Cover image: A view of the Longzhou Danxia Landform Scenic Area. /CFP)