China Guide
Yunnan
Shilin (The Stone Forest)
Price: ¥140
Address: 60km east of Kunming (coach every 30min from Kunming's South Train Station)
Yunnan's premier natural wonder is Shilin, the Stone Forest, an exposed bed of limestone spires weathered and split into intriguing clusters, . There are many such "forests" in southwestern China, but here the black, house-sized rocks are embellished with trees and vines, steps, paths and pavilions. It's undeniably impressive but also touristy and expensive.
It takes about an hour to cover slowly the main circuit through the pinnacles to Sword Peak Pond, an ornamental pool surrounded by particularly sharp ridges, which you can climb along a narrow track leading right up across the top of the forest. This is the most frequented part of the park, with large red characters incised into famous rocks, and ethnic Sani, a Yi subgroup, in unnaturally clean dresses strategically placed for photographers. The busiest areas of the park can be intimidatingly crammed with Chinese tour groups, but the paths that head out towards the perimeter are much quieter, leading to smaller, separate stone groupings in the fields beyond where you could spend the whole day without seeing another visitor.