The Introduction to the Scenic Spots of Yunnan Stone Forest
3 min readBrief Introduction
The Stone Forest is located 89 kilometers to the southeast of Kunming，and belongs to Shilin Yi Autonomous County.It is the most picturesque and the No.1 in the world in terms of its distribution，area coverage and clint magnitude.The total size of Stone Forest Scenic Area covers an area of 350 square kilometers and consists of 7 parts:Liziqing Stone Forest，Naigu Stone Forest，Dadieshui Waterfall，Changhu Lake，Yuehu Lake，Zhiyun Cave and Qifeng Cave.Liziqing Stone Forest is the main tourist section. The major section for sightseeing usually covers Big Stone Forest and Small Stone Forest. It is a world Geo-park; one of the 66 national 5A tourist attractions rated by China National Tourism Administration in May 2007, and was listed as the World Natural Heritage on 27h of June,2007 by the UNESCO.
Big Stone Forest
The Big Stone Forest is compared to a strong man. It is the earliest part openedfor tourism, features clusters of giant gray-black stone peaks, stone columns and stone swords with their tips pointing towards the blue heaven like a boundless forest, thus the name”Stone Forest”. Its main sites include such scenes as the Wonderful Scene of the Stone Forest,A Critical Moment, Lotus Peak, Sword Peak Pool, Two Bird Feeding Each Other, and Peak Observing Pavilion, etc. Of these, the Wonderful Scene of the Stone Forest best typifies the whole Stone Forest and thus has the two bright red and well-known characters Shi Lin entitled by Long Yun, the former Chairman of Yunnan.
Small Stone Forest
Unlike the scenes of Big Stone Forests, the scenery of small Stone Forest is characterized by smaller and less imposing peaks and rocks. Many Chinese films andTV dramas were filmed here. Beside the Jade Bird Pool, there is a tall peak lookinglike a beautiful Sani girl with a bamboo basket on her back, she is looking at the distance. This is the well-known Ashima which means”a girl as beautiful as gold”in the Yi language. Legend has it that: In a beautiful land named Azhuodi, Ashima was as beautiful as the camellia and as bright as sun in the morning glow.A brutal rich man named Rebubala forced Ashima to go and marry his son-Azhi. Her brother Ahei rescued her after overcoming all kinds of difficulties. But when they reached the Stone Forest area, they were rolled away by flood made by Rebubala and a fiend.
After the flood receded, Ashima became a stone statue standing high beside the JadeBird Pool of the Small Stone Forest. The Sani people believe that Ashima will bring happiness, Longevity and love to every visitor.
Naigu Stone Forest
The Naigu Stone Forest,10 kilometers northeast of the Liziqing Stone Forest, covers 7.83square kilometers.”Naigu”is a Yi word which means”black and primitive”. Thus the Naigu Stone Forest means literally the Black Stone Forest. The main spots of this stone forest are Meeting between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai，the Meeting Platform for Immortals，Watching above Peaks and A Forest of One Stone.
Dadieshui Waterfall
Regarded as the”First Waterfall of Pearl River”，Dadieshui or Grand Waterfall is located at southwest border of the Shilin County.Bajiang River，after winging its way for more than 30 km through Lunan basin and a narrow gorge shortly before the waterfall，plunge downed an uplift cliff to join Nanpan River，one of the main tributaries of upper reaches of Pearl River，originating a spectacular waterfall.The Grand Waterfall is nearly 90 meters high and about 70 meters wide，plunging water generates gigantic mist and deafening voice.It has long been an attraction for people to enjoy the natural splendor.
