Shilin

This is officially my last weekend in Yunnan, and I shall treat everyone by doing a few posts that have nothing to do with food! It's partly due to the lack of camera, but also I'm truthfully getting a little sick of the repetitive food here now. Plus I've been trying to avoid chillis because it gives me 熱氣 (hot air, apparently it makes me cough), which means there's not a lot of new stuff I can eat anyway!

Today I went off to 石林 Shilin, literally a stone forest about 2 hours out of Kunming. There are literally acres and acres of karst stones poking through the earth, some as tall as 30 metres high:

Although it's well known in Yunnan, I'm surprised this place isn't more well known in China. I was rather mesmerised by the place, helped by the fact that the cherry blossom is just blooming here, who needs Tokyo eh?

That is not to say that Shilin hasn't had its fair share of the Chinese tourist trail treatment. The entry fee is ludicrously expensive at Y140 per person, the paths are beautifully pathed, and there are tour groups lemminging behind those compulsory little tour group flags. There is also the fun of going round 'famous' stones which have been given silly names like 'Moon-Gazing Rhino' and 'Wife Waiting for Her Husband', which really does test the imagination.

But if you just walk a little past the tour groups, it is amazing how easy it is to be completely by yourself with not a soul insight. It reminded me of the slightly eerie quiet of Ayers Rock, but I thought it was a lot more charming (I will stop dissing Australia sooner or later). I also really like the folklore story about how the place came about. Geologically, the area of Shilin used to be a big mountain range, and the story goes that the gods broke up the mountains in order to give lovers a labyrinth of privacy. Aaaaah...