A publicity poster.
My Dear Great Ones,
I have over my life seen many magnificent natural and manmade wonders. Rocky Mountains, the pyramids, Grand Canyon, The Empire State Building, the Northern Lights, the Great Wall, underwater sea life in Lombok, the Calgary Tower (ha ha) etc, but I now have seen a wonder that ranks somewhere in my top five, even though the ancient leaders of the Ming Dynasty called it the, "The First Wonder of the World." The Stone Forest (Shilin in Chinese) is AMAZING! It is located about 120 km from the average sized Chinese city of Kunming, population @ 8 million. Kunming of course made the news just recently when terrorists attacked innocent people at the main train station. More on that later. The city is a thriving, prosperous place, lots of Starbucks, and Mcdonalds. You know a place is well off when it has lots of Starbucks and Mcdonalds, eh? Kunming's altitude is higher than Denver's or Calgary's. It lies at @ 6000 feet, 2000 meters above sea level. And the air is dry, dry, dry. I was wheezing at times like an old man. Ok, I know what some of you wise guys are thinking: a really old man ok. There is a saying in Kunming, which kind of goes like this: "If you visit Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest you have wasted your time." Thats a little harsh, but indeed I think the Stone Forest is worthy of anyone's bucket list.
However, the real reason I went with Celia to Kunming was to visit my old, old as in we have been friends for decades, old as in the fact we are in our 50's (gasp), friend Brent. Brent was with his wife in Kunming visiting relatives. They live in "exciting," Lethbridge, but met in Kunming. Their first date was at the Stone Forest!
At the Kunming airport Celia and I were greeted by Brent and his brother in law, and then watched in awe as a four man military patrol armed to the teeth marched right by us. Welcome to Kunming. This show of strength was replicated at the Stone Forest as well. Obviously the Chinese have taken the recent terrorist attack very seriously. Yet the soldiers seemed really young and were rather short. But their submachine guns looked very real.
After a good night's sleep we headed to the Stone Forest with Brent's brother in law as our driver. On the way we were stopped at a highway toll station by some very serious looking police men. All papers and documentation of our driver were fine, but there was tension as they surrounded him and talked rather sternly. Later he told us the police were a little curious about why he was transporting two westerners in his vehicle. Sigh......Although Kunming and a lot of China is prospering and looks very western, communism and its inherent paranoia still rears its ugly head. Or the terrorist attack has made everyone in authority a little edgy. Nevertheless we managed, after that excitement and enduring an hour long traffic jam, to get to the Stone Forest.
At first I was a little appalled. It reminded me of Disneyland, with the high entrance fee, the music, the flashing billboard promoting it in vivid color, and many of the women visitors were in dresses and high heels. At the edge of the Stone Forest there was a stage for ethnic performers and a well manicured lawn. And the crowds! Yeah there were a lot of people. This is a natural wonder?
Yet once we started hiking into the forest the crowds thinned into nothing and you could not hear the gaudy music. High heels are obviously not good for hiking! And sweating up nice clothes! No way. I could not help but think of Alf the geologist as we meandered through the labryinth of rocky pinnacles. I think his heaven will be like the Stone Forest for the rock formations were amazing, fantastic, wonderful, awe inspiring, and any other adjective you can think of that means wow. I will now let the pictures tell their story, but first some education:
What is Karst?
Karst is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks
including limestone, dolomite and gypsum. It is characterized by
sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage systems (Fig. 1). Nearly all
surface karst features are formed by internal drainage, subsidence, and
collapse triggered by the development of underlying caves (Palmer,
1991). Rainwater becomes acidic as it comes in contact with carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere and the soil. As it drains into fractures in
the rock, the water begins to dissolve away the rock creating a network
of passages. Over time, water flowing through the network continues to
erode and enlarge the passages; this allows the plumbing system to
transport increasingly larger amounts of water (Gunn, 2004). This
process of dissolution leads to the development of the caves, sinkholes,
springs, and sinking streams typical of a karst landscape.
The info below was seen on some signs with Chinese writing on the top. Obviously someone translated it into English so it may read a little awkward to some of you. Kind of like my writing at times.
Our human's? Hmm.
A small Stone Forest rising out of a lake.
Oh yeah I am here!
Wow
Have a great week everyone!
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