The Stone Forest Scenic Area
The Stone Forest Scenic Area is approximately 80 kilometers away from the downtown of Kunming. Covering 400 square kilometers, it has been a State 5A-level Scenic Attraction, National Geo Park, World Geo Park, National Key Scenic Area as well as a World Natural Heritage Site accepted by UNESCO in 2007. The Stone Forest is famous for the Karst landform and the ethnic culture of the Sani People (a branch of the Yi ethnic minority).
"Karst" or “Carst” turns out to be the name of the Istrian Peninsula which is a carbonatite plateau in Former Yugoslavia; it means “the place where rocks are exposed to the air”. When affected by water, the dissolvable rocks (limestones) will get eroded, precipitate and subside, resulting in various topographic formations such as stone forests, pinnacles, buds, dolines, lakes and subterranean rivers etc. In China, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian provinces and regions are all scattered with Karst landforms, among which the stone forest in Yunnan’s Kunming is the best developed and tops others. Having been regarded as “the No.1 Wonder under the Sun” for long, the Stone Forest of Kunming was officially accepted as a World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO on June 27, 2007.
The Stone Forest was formed in the Permian Period, some 270 million years ago. The entire scenic zone consists of the Major Stone Forest, the Minor Stone Forest, Naigu Stone Forest, Dadieshui Waterfall, Changhu Lake, Yuehu Lake, Zhiyun Cave and Qifeng Cave etc.
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