Stone Forest (Shilin 石林) – Kunming – Yunnan Province – PRC – September 2018

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China PRC, Kunming, Shilin 石林, Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Stone Forest, travelling with friends, travels in China, Yunnan Province

Beautiful limestone formations in southern China!

Whilst holidaying in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in China, I arranged a tour guide to take my friend Jon and myself to Shilin (Stone Forest).  I hadn’t visited there when I lived in China (2011 to 2014) so it was on my list of places to visit when I returned.

As with anywhere in China you are ‘never’ going to be the only people sightseeing…so I always try and arrive right on opening time to try and miss the masses (rarely works!!).But visiting all the fabulous places in China is definitely worth the effort and the Stone Forest was worth it.  So what is the Stone Forest, well it’s a set of limestone formations located in an area about 500 km2 – we certainly did not walk this distance and after about two and a half hours of walking in the heat and pushing past/being pushed by hundreds of people we were well and truly over it but did get to see some beautiful formations.

When we first arrived, our tour guide walked us over a little bridge to enter the forest…I always love reflections of a bridge on the water!I also love the reflections of the stones on the water…

And I am not sure if these men were sitting in their boat for us tourists to take photos; they were gone after about twenty minutes…but it was a great photo opportunity anyway.During our walk, our guide who told us he had visited this site tens and tens of times was able to show us natural stones in the shapes of animals…this one is very easy to identify…We also saw minority people along the way; some sewing, some singing and dancing as well as playing musical instruments while others were selling their wares which of course we bought.Another place ticked off my ‘things to do in China’ list.