The beginning of my Yunnan Dream

On one occasion heading to the Stone Forest I visited a compact agricultural village of low-rise mostly adobe-walled buildings nestling around a small lake. Qixingcun or Seven Star Village when compared to Kunming felt like going back in time. It was particularly scenic and I enjoyed meeting the people from the Sani ethnic nationality who live around the Stone Forest area. The Sani are related to the Yi people. Mature corn cobs had just been harvested, some hanging from wooden drying frames. Below a pole holding strings of red peppers, more cobs were spread across flat rooftops. It was lunchtime and children were returning home from a local elementary school, however meeting me some gathered on stone steps, trying to have a conversation.

Today the Stone Forest (Shilin) is one of the most popular tourist destinations around Kunming. Indeed its uniqueness has been recognized since the Ming Dynasty. Composed of highly weathered limestone rock it formed over 270 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era. Within the shallow tropical seas that once covered that area, the skeletal remains of millions, indeed trillions, of sea creatures sank to the sea floor. Over time as more and more shells and bones gathered, the pressure compressed everything into carboniferous rock.