Blogs from Shilin, Yunnan, China, Asia

Despite the mass tourism,the Stone Forest remains an enjoyable place. Fortunately most tourists don't enter deep in the park. For instance, for more than an hour I met nobody on the trail, I was alone in the wonderful environment. taxi to Kunming East bus station, 30min, 50Yuan. bus from Kunming East bus station to Shilin, 1h30, 36Yuan. Stone Forest park entrance, 175Yuan. bus inside the park, 25Yuan. bus from Shilin to Kunming East bus station, 36Yuan. taxi from Kunming East bus station to the hotel, 50Yuan. !---! IC Holiday Shuncheng Serviced Apartments, Kunming, China, 178Yuan.... read more

The 7 hour bus trip from Shangri La to Dali was quite pleasant and I was pleased that we bypassed Lijiang for fear of adding more time onto the journey. We went through some nice towns and scenery, and it is obviously rice planting season at the moment because it seemed that everyone from the towns were in the fields helping in some way. Once arriving in Dali I headed for a cheap family run guesthouse called YouYu that Aleksei recommended just inside the north gate. I got a great little room with wifi and bathroom( and a couple of free meals over my stay) for $8.50 a night and the location pleased me by being just outside the tourist area. I spent 4 nights in Dali and everyday I was there it rained. I was ... read more

If up'till now I always had a genuine feeling of China... this limestone forrest definately didn't give me one. The place is out of time and out of any special coordinates. It could just as well have been somewhere in the mediteranean. Maybe cause Slovenian Carst has been the base for the carstic terminology and it's something I grew up with. Or maybe just because carst is carst...wherever it may be. So all kinds of formations found here... were notnig new for me. But here I'm talking only about segments of carst. This forrest is a total upgrade of all my carstic knowledge. As if someone has been giventools and basic carstic elements and has digitalised it but then also carved it out for real! stone ...work of art! artists: WATER ...with some assistance of WIND ... read more

We have posted a video here: DALI: RICE SHREDDERS We had seen them on the way into and out of Lunan; these Freaks of Nature. Towering, grey limestone rocks congregated in one huge park forming the weird and wacky 'Stone Forest'. Outside the park were scores of male and female guides superbly attired in colorful minority dress. Easily one of China's most visited attractions, at RMB 140 per person it was also one of the most expensive. Guideless, we stepped thru the turnstyles, passed the reflecting pool and into the labyrinthine 'forest'. According to legend, immortals smashed up a mountain into endless, serpentine pathways for lovers in need of privacy. Science debunks this, of course, claiming instead that ages of rain and wind was the culprit. Truth be told, we prefer the legend. Dramatically narrowing ... read more