Around 90 km from Kunming city, the capital of Yunnan province, South China, lies one of the most famous tourist destinations of the country, the Stone Forest. Ever sine the reign of the Ming Dynasty [ 1368-1644 A.D.] it was claimed to be the First Wonder of the World and in modern times it was given the title of UNESCO World Heritage.

The Stone Forest Trivia

On an area of 400 km² in total people get to see unusual rock formations, small and large stone forests interspersed with walking paths and steep steps carved into the rock. The various formations have been given special, descriptive names such as Wife awaiting her Husbands Return. When visiting the Stone Forest, there are to ways to enjoy the attraction. You can either walk around as you please and discover everything by yourself, or you can get a tour guide who will show you around, supply you with background information and legends and will be wearing traditional folk style clothing of the Sani and Yi minorities, who can be found in this region.

The Legend of the Stone Forest Asham and Ahei

Of course an attraction as famous as the Stone Forest is accompanied by a number of legends, of which the Legend of Asham and Ahei is the most famous one. Legend has it, that Asham, a young girl from a poor family, met th boy Ahei in the mountains. Ahei had lost his way while out on a task for his landlord. When Ahei described how badly he was being treated by his landlord, Asham took pity on him and had him accompany her to her parents home. When her parents heard about Aheis horrible master, they decided to adopt the boy. Henceforth, the two children grew up together, fell in love, got married and could have lived happily ever after.

Sadly, Aheis former landlord had a son named Azhi, who admired Ashams extraordinary beauty and since he could not have her, decided to kidnap her. The moment Ahei heard what had happened to his beloved wife, he started looking for her to save her. To free Asham, he killed the greedy landlord and his son. After he had his revenge, the two of them, Asham and Ahei, went into the stone forest to get the happy ending they deserved. It was in the stone forest, that Asham gave birth to many sons and daughters, who according to the legend are the ancestors of the Sani tribe.

Public transport to and from the Stone Forest

There are a number of buses running from the different bus stations in Kunming directly to the Stone Forest. The site is about a to hours bus ride from the city and costs about 25 Yuan for a single ticket. You can chose between two different types of buses, the regular one which runs in the mornings every hour, or secondly, the irregular bus, which doesnt leave according to any schedule, but as soon as the bus is full of passengers, the danger being that you might spend half an hour sitting around in the bus, waiting for the last two seats to fill up and losing time you could have spent in the forest.

Since the bus only runs in the morning and a lot of people want to go to the forest, it is advisable to buy tickets for the scheduled bus the day before your trip, to make sure you get some. If you can not or do not ant to buy the tickets by yourself, a lot of international youth hostels in Kunming offer a ticket service, here they buy the tickets for you and have them brought to the hostel, in exchange for a service charge.

Is the Stone Forest worth visiting

One thing you have to be aware of before considering a trip to the Stone Forest is its fame throughout China. As a major tourist attraction this site is always overflowing with Chinese tourist groups, which leaves the question Is it worth the hassle?

If you only stay on the beaten track you will have a hard time finding a quiet place to relax and enjoy the scenery around you with the huge flow of people and the tourist guides shouting trivia into their microphones. If you stay on the main walkway, you will probably not find yourself able to fully take in the amazing stone formations or even take a picture which is not full of strangers. So, be prepared to go with the flow if you are just staying on the classical route.

If you have a little more time and would like to explore and do some climbing around steep steps, you can find the side tracks, which although not as effortless as the main walkway, are almost tourist free and therefore allow a slow, relaxing pace to take in the incredible scenery and take some lovely pictures.

Do not expect too much from the names of the different stone formations. It takes a lot of imagination and eye squinting to actually believe them to be the animals they apparently symbolize. Also, every now and then, you will come upon an archway that seems to coincidentally have formed by a rock falling on top of to others. Apparently, the stone forest has undergone a couple of decorative enhancements to create more beautiful, but less natural paths.

In conclusion, this UNESCO heritage site, although a busy meeting point of Chinese tourist groups and probably not entirely natural, is still definitely worth a visit, especially once one breaks away from the main flow of direction and explores the outer, quieter rims, there is a lot to see here.