Stone Forest – Stone Forest Karst Museum – Naigu Stone Forest
Stone Forest World Geopark is located in Shilin County, Kunming, Yunnan Province. It belongs to subtropical low latitude plateau mountain monsoon climate, and the annual average temperature is about 16 ℃. It is about 70km away from Yunnan’s capital Kunming city, and it takes about 50 minutes from downtown Kunming by car. It marvels tourists from around the world with its epic karst landscapes. After a long geological evolution, the amazing geological relics were formed from a wetland about 300 million years ago.
The Stone Forest Karst Museum is located in the Stone Forest Scenic Area, covering an area of 500 mu, and the total construction area is about 50,000 sqm. It has more than 13,000 collections of treasures from the stone forest karst area, in which 10 exhibits have been rated as wonders of the world by Guinness.
Naigu means “black” in Yi language. Naigu Stone Forest is located at the northern part of the Stone Forest Scenic Area, taking about more than 10 sqm. It is one of the most important parts of the Stone Forest relics. Naigu Stone Forest is gray-black on the rocks and the pillars and stones are taller and denser compared with that of the Stone Forest.
Shilin Furu, or preserved tofu is as famous as Xuanwei Ham in Yunnan. It has more than 200 years of history, and up until today, it remains one of the favourite pickled vegetables in most places in Yunnan. Tofu is the main ingredient, other elements include salt, pepper chilli, Chinese red pepper, aniseed and other secret ingredients. After months of fermentation, all the other ingredients are blended with the tofu, making it soft, salted and golden inside. A great variety of Furu could be found in Shilin, including wine flavoured furu, oily furu, furu with fried Collybia albuminosa and furu with thelephora ganbajun, etc. They all taste different yet very popular in Yunnan.
(photo credit: shilin.gov.cn)
Shilin Goat Cheese is a very traditional food on Sani People’s dinner table. It is made of goat milk and normally people would steam it to keep the original milky flavour or to stir fry it with ham or other vegetables.
(photo credit: yn.news.163)
Sani embroidery boasts a long history and it is still popular among young people in Yunnan due to its exquisite texture and bright colour.
(photo credit: shilin.gov.cn)
It takes about 70 minutes by car from downtown Kunming.
You can also go there by coach at Kunming Eastern Bus Terminal. The ticket price is 30 Yuan.
It takes about 20 minutes by high-speed rail from KunmingNan Railways Station to Shilin Xi Station. Ticket price: 18 -29 Yuan.