The Zhangjiajie landform is a unique type of sandstone formation, consisting of quartz sandstone as the parent rock of the landscape. Formed by the forces of water erosion, gravitational collapse, weathering, and so on, it consists mainly of angular, straight, lofty forest of stelae.

Zhangjiajie is located in the third uplift zone of the New Huaxia in the regional tectonic system. During its long geological history, it has roughly experienced Wuling, Xuefeng, Indochina, Yanshan, Xishan, and newly formed the basic tectonic geomorphological framework of the region. Xishan and tectonic movements are the most fundamental internal factors that form Zhangjiajie's unique quartz sandstone peak forest landscape. Water erosion, gravitational collapse, and bio-biological and physical weathering caused by outlying geological activity are the essential external conditions that shape the Zhangjiajie landscape. Its formation is therefore the result of a long-term interaction between internal and external forces in a particular geological environment.

During the mid-to-late Devonian period of the Late Paleozoic, the crust of northwestern Hunan declined and a large area of seagrass was leached, turning it into a vast ocean. Zhangjiajie is located in the deep sea of the "Chuanxiang Depression", near ancient land. It receives a large amount of loose debris material that has been continuously relocated from adjacent ancient land by running water. After sedimentation and a long and complex genetic process, it forms quartz sandstone with a thickness of more than 500 metres. The eerie and treacherous peaks and valleys we see have been formed by long periods of water cutting, differential weathering, gravitational collapse and other external forces. The quartz sandstone peak forest landscape is unique and unique and of high tourist and scientific research value.