Wild China #5 - The Stone Forest

The fact that the BBC are re-showing their superb documentary series 'Wild China', plus the tragic news about the recent earthquake in southern China, has prompted me to continue with these occasional reports on my visit to the country a couple of years ago. Indeed it so happens that the earthquake occurred just north of the scene of my latest report, the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province.

We made an early start from our hotel in downtown Kunming and were soon in countryside that appeared a little different from what we had previously encountered in China. If it hadn't been for the abundance of road signs and advertising hoardings in Chinese, I could have sworn that we were in a mountain region in southern Europe. Our journey took us 75 miles (120 Km) to the dramatic limestone formations that are known as the Stone Forest.

Not that the journey was uneventful as on route we experienced some of the truly wild side of China. By that I mean the driving! Although we always felt relatively safe in the competent hands of our own driver, we saw some pretty awful driving and no fewer than three accidents. Thankfully none of them looked too serious.

Our visit coincided with yet another festival. This time it was the turn of the Yi minority group who were having their torch festival in the park. The disadvantage of this was that the entrance to the park was awash with people but the advantage was that we witnessed some wonderful brightly coloured ethnic costumes and of course the festival atmosphere. 

The 'forest' is so named because of the way the limestone peaks rise up from the ground like stalagmites with many of them having the appearance of petrified trees. Some have been given quite imaginative names though occasionally a good deal of imagination is required to recognise the likeness. 









Nevertheless this area of 400 square kilometres is rich in natural beauty and wandering around we found that we soon left the crowds behind and were able to take in the astonishing scenes around us.

Unlike our visits to Beijing and Xian where the skies had been grey with smog, here we experienced truly fresh air and beautiful blue skies.

In places, artificial lakes have been created allowing the reflections to further enhance the views.

And in strategic places, some welcome shade had been provided.



After several hours of wondering around this magical place, and managing to avoid getting lost, it was time for us to take our leave.

It had been yet another unforgettable day.

My thoughts at this time are with those who have been affected by this most recent earthquake.