The representative Danxia landscape, named after Mt. Danxia of Guangdong Province, is a special type of landscape characterized by red cliffs. With the rise of tourism in recent years, it has become a focus of geomorphological research. However, there are still controversies in some basic issues of Danxia landscape. Based on the geological, geomorphological characteristics and regional geologic evolution of the named place, this paper proposes a new definition and classification of Danxia landscape with emphasis on three fundmental elements: prominent red cliffs, continental red beds deposited since Yanshanian cycle as material basis, and water erosion as a dominant external force. Moreover, the Danxia landscapes are also widely distributed in NW China and they can be classified into two types: one is the old Danxia landscape covered by Quaternary loess, another is characterized by water erosion and covered by mud. This paper proposes the concept of danxianization which involves various geologic processes such as water erosion, gravity collapse, and weathering and deterioration of the Mesozoic- Cenozoic continental clastic rocks, resulting in the formation of Danxia landscapes. The danxianization includes two special mechanisms of lithofacies control and vertical overflow erosion. The differences in red bed lithofacies control the development and type of Danxia landscape. Therefore, Danxia landscape evolution model is hereby revised as the function of lithofacies, geologic structure, external forces, and time. In typical red bed basins of South China, the coarse- grained alluvial fan deposits at basin margin have the early, middle, and late development stages. In contrast, mudstones and siltstones deposited in the middle of the basin are thought to have not experienced the development stage of prominent cliffs. Water erosion during the torrential rain on the cliff sides along the vertical trench is called vertical overflow erosion which results in the formation of vertical grooves and cavities. The vortex action is caused by rotating and drilling by wind to generate cone- shaped cavities, beaded tafoni, which are then coalesced laterally to form flat caves. Thus, it is proposed that the ages of the beaded cavities are vertically consistent, they may form at different ages in horizontal direction.