misadventures: Spring Festival Break: Pt 3. The Stone Forest

A nice little excursion out of Kunming was to see the Stone Forest of Shilin. I had heard mixed reviews about this place. Some said it was great, some said it was expensive and over-run with tour groups. Either way, it was listed as one of the must-see locations in this part of Yunnan, so I decided to go and see for myself. Our hostel organised a bus trip out there so I got to hang out with some of the other travellers I had met the previous day.

The critics were right about the price - 140 yuan - but were wrong about the impact of the place. I don't think the photos can quite convey it, but it was seriously impressive. The forest consists of hundreds and hundreds of limestone peaks that have been carved and eroded by the weather into bizarre rippled shapes. As if the scenery wasn't great enough, the weather was beautiful and the tour groups failed to materialise. Within minutes we were inside the labyrinth and a million miles away from the rest of the world. We spent the day exploring, getting lost and taking pictures.

Over 60 pictures of rocks. I must be mad.

When walking round a pool later in the day I noticed two faintly carved steps leading towards a narrow gap between two of the towers. I decided to conduct a little exploration, climbed through the gap, crawled between some fallen stones and discovered on the other side a set of steps, barely big enough to take one foot, leading upwards. Well, I had to follow so, calling my friends, we climbed on. The picture below of Marcus and Marilyn climbing the staircase shows how tiny the steps were, and also the lack of handrails. It wasn't until we reached the top that Marcus confessed he has a thing about heights. You can see how tightly he's holding on to that rock! The path brought us out onto the top of a set of these peaks, with a full view across the whole park. It was incredible. You had a real sense of discovery, and not one other person in sight. At least until a private guide came up the other way leading two Chinese tourists. Oh well, I suppose you can't get away from it all that easily!