Nature's 270 million years of magical craftsmanship have created the beautiful and magical Yunnan Stone Forest, which is known as the "Bonsai of God" and the "Sculpture Museum of Nature".

Yunnan Shilin is located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Kunming, Yunnan, 78 kilometers away from Kunming. Thousands of stone peaks rise from the ground, and vivid and diverse shapes of swords, pillars, towers, mushroom-shaped and other rocks are interspersed in the stone forest. Each stone is a scene, and the strange rocks are uneven. There are endless changes in the majestic, strange, dangerous and secluded mountains. It is like walking into a nature sculpture museum.

Local people say that Shilin was driven by a Hercules from a distant place with a divine whip like a flock of sheep. I wanted to drive them to stop the raging flood, but I don't know if the divine whip failed, or if this group of spiritual stones fell in love with this land, soil, and people, the rushing stone group suddenly stopped and settled here without regrets. home.

Regarding the formation of the stone forest, 270 million years ago, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau was still an ocean with sufficient sunshine and suitable temperature. There were a large number of shellfish, corals and other organisms living in the sea. Their corpses were deposited on the seabed. After hundreds of millions of years, thick sediments were formed. Hundreds of thousands of years later, the sediments turned into limestone rocks.

The limestone in the sea is constantly washed away by the flowing seawater, leaving countless dissolved ditches and columns. Later, the earth's crust continued to rise, and the rocks were completely exposed to the sea. The rocks were covered and protected by later Neogene red soil. About 500,000 years ago, the Quaternary crust rose, rainwater washed away the Neogene soil layer, and the stone forest revealed its new appearance, becoming a wonder in the world today's karst and karst landform.

The stone forest is located where the Sani people (a branch of the Yi people) live. The Yi language name is "Luo Saima", which means that the stone is like a forest. The Sani people mean happy people. The combination of the two creates happy people living in the places with the most stones.

The Sani people of the Yi nationality who have lived in the Shilin area for generations are natural singers and dancers, creating the world-famous "Ashima" national culture.

The movie "Ashima" is well-known at home and abroad, and "Guests from afar Please Stay" sings loudly in the land of China. The Yi Torch Festival falls on the 24th day of the June lunar calendar every year. The carnival scene of tens of thousands of people is unforgettable.

When you come to Shilin, you can't see enough.