Shilin

On our last full day in Kunming, we decided to go tot Shilin, otherwise known as the Stone Forest.  I remember back in my childhood, my family went to a miniature park called "Splendid China" in Florida.  In that park, there were large models of many of the sights to see in China - one of which was Shilin.  It was the one I remembered the most.  I always wanted to go to the Stone Forest ever since that moment, and now the opportunity arose!

We agreed to take the hostel's rented vehicle to get there.  To decrease the cost per person, however, Mom did some recruiting.  She managed to get a German fellow named Asef and a Columbian woman named Lina to come with. Great making new travel friends!

Bert, Jim, Lina, Pat, and Asef at Shilin.

Once we got there, we were met with hordes of people and tour buses.  The entire forest was surrounded by a road in which golf carts drove through with Chinese tourists inside taking stops to take pictures at key locations.  Our group had none of that.  We walked.  And we saw a lot more. 

We went off the main road to go check out the "Eternal Mushroom" stone formation.  No tourist on a golf cart could get there, unless they decided to break away from the pack.  I have to say the Eternal Mushroom didn't really look like a mushroom at all, but at least we walked through some stunning scenery along the way.  Again, most tourists at Shilin did not get to see such things.

Not the eternal mushroom, but this was a better picture to post!

Walking through the trails away from the main road, we eventually came to a cavernous region of the forest.  We had to walk through places where we had to take off our backpacks and crouch down because it was too narrow to pass through.

No-backpack Asef takes point and leads us through a narrow crevice. Everyone else struggles with their backpacks.

Jim going though a big rock. Believe or not, it's part of the trail to get to another part of the forest.

On the other side of the rock.

 Getting back to the road, we walked towards the hordes of tourists, knowing very well that they only scratched the surface of this place.  We were greatly amused by the Chinglish descriptions on various plaques and billboards before we ate lunch and drove back to Kunming.

Shilin was one of the highlights of my HK-Macau-Kunming-Lijiang-Shanghai trip.  When I go back to Shilin with Cathy one day, we will definitely walk it for sure.