CHINA'S STONE FOREST

Stretching for miles, the number one attraction in this area near Kunming is the unique topography called the Stone Forest. It was once  part of a huge ocean. The crust lifted and formed the Himalayas and left the fantastic shapes of the stone forest.

We travel through a three-mile long tunnel to get to the stone forest which replaced a twisty, tortuous road. (The Chinese do things in a big way. Probably unsafe at that length as well.) I would have preferred the twisty route because I enjoy those kind of roads. Our  driver first circles a huge section of the forest and our city guide  points out various configurations  that resemble hats, or a baby, or an elephant.

Almost every configuration has a cap or hat that gives them their unique form.


Our group enjoys walking around the huge stones. Like a maze, a person could get lost among them. Rock climbing would be wonderful but is not allowed. I can imagine the people of long ago enjoying just such a simple pleasure.

In this particular area of the forest, a visitors center has been built on a small lake. Since there is no parking, we take a shuttle ride to this beautiful spot. It is high season for Chinese tourists who love to come here.  They have weddings, and picnics, celebrate birthdays and enjoy the “park”.

And, in turn, we enjoy watching the colorfully dressed locals arrange themselves along this pretty lake to have their pictures taken.

The beautiful girls in their colorful clothing are irresistible.

They all carry a basket of yellow flowers. Certainly it has some significance, but we know not what.

Among the tourists I see this woman’s style of clothing and the woman with a typical Chinese sun hat and a man with a more modern cap.
The Yi people of this area were featured in a movie about a woman who was persecuted because she was against arranged marriage. The Yi people show their single status by the way they arrange their feathers. A girl shows interest in a man by touching her horn.  We didn’t see anyone wearing a feather or a horn.

This fellow was resting with what may have been a musical instrument or horn. Or, maybe a pipe?

Chinese women carry huge burdens and think nothing of it. This back pack was loaded as you can see, and there is a feather in her pack.

We chuckled at the Chinglesh of this warning sign.
Vicki informs us that Mau came from Yunnan Province, his grandfather was born here. Yunnan means south of the cloud. The land here is fertile and there are many farms in the area.  A great flood killed 1500 people. The land was allowed to revert to forest after that.

Loading back on the shuttle, I spot another interesting headdress on this gentleman.
Back on the bus, Vicki gives us a history of the minority people from this area.  The Suni Muslims are a branch of the Yi people.  The black Yis enslaved the white Yis because they admired the rare black tigers of Asia over the white tigers.  Great hunters and wrestlers, strong and muscular,  they walk in fire and have fire torch festivals unique to the area. Mau banished slavery among the Yis.
Other minorities are the Hui People. They are known for their roast duck. The nucleous of this minority came with Kubla Khan. They were called barbarians for their way of life.
The Wah minority favor rat meat. They are from Tibet and in older times lent their wives to friends, or two sisters were allowed to share one husband. Those practices are now forbidden. Many Wah are still nomadic and they live on the road and move about with their burden animals and small tents. Girls live in white tents. Any man can go in the tent and fornicate with her because she has to have a baby to prove that she is fertile before she can marry. She usually chooses the first one to impregnate her. But, the tent is guarded by a dog and the man must fight off a huge guard dog to take his chances with this girl. He cannot use modern weapons, he can fight the dog with stones and his fists.  A Tibetan man shares his sister if her husband dies. She can fornicate with her son in Mongolian Culture. From a modern view, they were all barbarians.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Yesterday, our goal was to move to Leavenworth on the east side of the Cascades. A change of plans came as Jim studied the book and called Ford dealerships to learn all he could about transmissions. He settled on one of two transmission shops. The fix has waylaid us until we can get the Bronco repaired.  I’m returning to my China Journal and pictures.

We left the restaurant and enjoyed the street scenes as we walked to our bus. This cute family was mobbed by we tourists.  The wooden stroller is unusual to us and the boy in the middle with a bamboo backpack as well. Remember that you can click on any of these pictures to make them larger and see better detail.

This set of orange bonnets is a public phone booth;  I expect, like ours, soon to be obsolete.

I’ve seen pictures of the Great Wall and thought of it as a smooth brick-like roadway.  Up close, it is anything but smooth. Rugged, overpowering, stupendous, jagged, uneven, crooked, weathered. The section we visited is from 1400 A.D. The wall was started in 200 B.C. We are told the Chinese archeologists just discovered 500 kilometers more of rammed earth wall base previously unknown.

The soldiers/laborers who built it had varying  skill.  This rough,crooked stairway leads to one of the “guardhouses” that were built at regular intervals along the miles of wall. I had no idea the wall was manned. I thought just the height and steepness of it kept out intruders. The wall in various forms stretches over 5,000 miles.

The camera cannot take in the unbelievable reality of this wall undulating up and down the surrounding mountains for as far as the eye can see. It graces every mountain crest on China’s Mongolian border.

Numerous gates and exits allowed the soldiers and their families to go for water, tend their gardens, and hunt for food and gather wood.  The guardhouses where they lived had very little privacy, no toilet or washing facilities, no doors and no windows, only openings that allowed the cold air to enter.  Life in the guardhouses  only sheltered them from rain and snow. In many places they were miles and miles from civilization.

Only some sections of the wall are maintained. In places, the bricks have fallen, have heaved and cracked or become overgrown with vegetation. The cost of maintaining the wall is enormous and thus neglected. Here we see the drainage system that carries  water away from the walkway.

Each section has an individuality about it as you can see where one worker differentiated his placement slightly from another worker just 30 feet away.

On the Chinese side of the wall are remnants of fruit trees and gardens. The fruit trees have self seeded. On the enemy side of the wall,  soldiers kept all vegetation cleared for 30 feet out from the wall so no enemy could approach unseen.

Seeing the Great Wall was  worth the whole trip. We walked about a mile from one station to another and another. We met a couple  with two children, all  burdened with  backpacks. They camped and walked the great wall for two weeks and saw many exciting sections that we on tours cannot see during our limited visit.  I had no idea that camping on the great wall was an option.

Visiting the Great Wall was an emotional and unforgettable experience for me. Wikipedia has more precise information about the great wall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China