Stones that Rock

Most people use Kunming and her international airport as a gateway to the rest of Yunnan Province. Our initial thought was to head out of Kunming as soon as possible, but we decided to give it twenty-four hours. The big attraction in Kunming is the Stone Forest which is half an hour away by bus. The Stone Forest has a well-deserved reputation as being a tourist trap. The conventional wisdom is that it is (was) beautiful, but it has been cemented over with parking lots and footpaths.

The Stone Forest is hundreds of acres in central Yunnan covered in karst rock formations. The columns and pillars and boulders all seem to point heaven-ward. They are craggy and immense and they are an artist’s dream. Over the centuries, paths and alleyways emerged. They rise, twist, turn, and descend through the rock formation. A person could easily get lost in their wanderings through the Stone Forest.

According to Chinese legend, the gods carved this amazing labyrinth out of the mountains so that star-struck lover could seek solitude among the rocks.

But it didn’t appear as though visitors –star-struck lovers or anyone else- were going to have a modicum of privacy on this particular day. As promised, the place was overrun with tourists. They had been arriving by the bus load all morning.

Long ago, the Stone Forest with it uneven paths and blind turns had been made tourist-friendly. A huge parking lot handled all the incoming traffic. Restaurants, souvenir stands, and shops offering sunscreen and umbrellas lined the avenue leading up to the entrance. We had to go through turnstiles to enter the Forest.

A friend had tipped us off that the Stone Forest can be an enjoyable experience; you just need move toward the less densely peopled areas. So at every fork in the path, we looked to see which path had the most people down it and then we went in the opposite direction. Ten minutes later we found ourselves alone in a remote part of the Stone Forest. For the next hour, we wandered around and managed to not bump into another soul.

It was wonderful.

We hiked, we climbed, we scrambled. We explored the nooks and crannies of the ancient Stone Forest of Kunming. And when we had had enough, we started to wonder back in the general direction from which we had come. Eventually, we perked up our ears and use the noise from of the crowds to navigate our way back to civilization.

We blended in with the crowd and queued up to make our way to the gazebo that sat atop one of the highest points in the forest. It was absolutely packed with people. It was popular for a reason; the views of the Stone Forest were magnificent. Even I had an urge to find a canvas and brush and start painting. But instead of painting pictures, we were in them. We stood for what would be the first of many photo sessions over the course of our trip at the behest of our fellow Chinese travelers. We were happy to do so –it was hard to be anything by gracious in such a picture-perfect setting.

It was great day and we were glad that we had stuck around Kunming.

My advice: The Stone Forest can be an enjoyable experience; you just need move toward the less densely peopled areas.