Shilin Stone Forest
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
- UNESCO Global Geopark
Interesting facts
- The name Shilin, Stone Forest, was given in 1931 by Long Yun, then governor of Yunnan, whose carved inscription was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and restored in 1985.
- The main pillar fields are carved from Permian Makou limestone, while the Naigu Stone Forest formed in dolomite and dolomitic limestone of the older Qixia Formation.
- The 1964 film Ashima, based on the Sani epic of the same name, is regarded as China's first colour widescreen musical film.
- Shilin became a national scenic area in 1982 and was named a Global Geopark in 2004.
- The scenic area is divided into seven zones, including caves, the Long Lake and the Dadieshui waterfall as well as the pillar fields.
- Shilin holds China's top AAAAA rating for tourist attractions.
Why it is worth it
The Stone Forest — Shilin in Chinese — is a karst landscape in eastern Yunnan where grey limestone has been dissolved and cut into thousands of blades, pillars and narrow fins standing so close together that from a viewpoint they really do read as a petrified wood. The rock was laid down on the floor of a shallow sea some 270 million years ago, in the Permian; once the land rose, rain and groundwater worked along its joints, widening cracks into corridors and leaving the solid rock between them as free-standing towers. The tallest pillars reach more than 40 metres, and the paths between them squeeze through slots barely shoulder-wide before opening onto small pools and courtyards of stone.
The protected area spreads over roughly 500 km² and is divided into several zones, which include caves, lakes and waterfalls as well as the pillar fields. The most visited part, near the main entrance, is a dense maze of peaks with smooth, fluted sides; another section holds the formation everyone comes to find — a single pillar said to be Ashima. In the story told by the Sani, a branch of the Yi people who live around Shilin, Ashima was a girl forbidden to marry the man she loved and turned to stone; local tradition still points to her silhouette among the rocks.
In 2007 the Naigu area and the landscape around Suogeyi village were inscribed by UNESCO as part of the South China Karst, a serial World Heritage site that brings together some of the finest karst in the country. Shilin is also the heart of a Yi autonomous county, and the Torch Festival — held on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month, with dancing and wrestling — is its great public celebration.
Getting there
The scenic area adjoins the county town of Shilin, under a kilometre away, and lies about 90 km east of Kunming. The nearest airport is Kunming Changshui International (KMG), about 51 km away. High-speed trains on the Nanning–Kunming line run from Kunming and Kunming South stations to Shilin West in roughly 25 to 50 minutes, and organised bus tours leave from Kunming.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Stone Forest or Shilin is a notable set of limestone formations about 500 km2 in area located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan, China. The forest is approximately 90 km (56 mi) east of the provincial capital Kunming.
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