Trip to Kunming, China (via Hong Kong) Nov 30-Dec 5


Kunming, the City of Eternal Spring is located in the province of Yunnan in southwestern China.

SHILIN ?? Stone Forest
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site just a short time ago, the Stone Forest has been considered by the Chinese population to be one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. I would not quite go that far -- but it was a beautiful place and offered a glimpse at a very unique natural phenonmenon but also into how the today's Chinese live and celebrate their own national heritage.
I had looked into going to the Stone Forest ever since June when I decided to travel to Kunming to attend an educational conference at Yunnan University there from Dec 1-3, 2005. I had read that it was overrun by hordes of Chinese tourists so I had looked into and even tried to arrange a tour bus trip for a small group of conference attendees to go the nearby Naigu Shilin (Black Stone Forest).

As it turned out, three of us ended up hiring a taxi driver to take up to Shilin (for 400 yuan) (including taking us onto the airport for our flight back to Hong Kong for one night transist before returning to Narita (Tokyo) Japan the following day.
We left Yunda Hotel (the university hotel) at around 8:30 am and arrived at about 9:45am at the main entrance of Shilin. Although I had given the driver (who spoke not a word of English) a written note asking him to take us to the Naigu Shilin (Black Stone Forest located about 7 km from the main Shilin entrance). He either forgot or thought we would enjoy the main Stone Forest better. If fact, I think he was right. It was not as crowded as I had expected -- probably the advice I had received about the massive crowds was by people from less densely populated countries than those of us who live and work in Asia.
It was still early in the day so that may have accounted for the fewer tourists -- still it was quite crowded around the central viewing area and at the peak tower observation platform.
Just before we started into the site, we decided to find a toilet and followed some people into a guest house. Everybody seemed to be heading to the same point -- the head. There were long lines at both men's and women's toilets. I had never seen so many people packed into such a small space standing 3-4 deep just behind each other. In some cases, the Chinese stood two together so that two guys could take a piss at the same time while just behind us other were taking a crap in the long trough that served as a continuously flushing toilet. Nobody seemed self-conscious and hardly anyone gave us (the few foreigners) a second glance either in the toilet or outside on the grounds of the 400 acres of the Stone Forest park.