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Posted On Friday, November 23, 2012 at
at
10:54 PM
by Alvin
Having fond memories of our times in Yunnan (雲南) 5 years ago on our last leg of the Indo-China journey, we could hardly wait as this time we ventured back to beautiful Yunnan and hit south towards the Laos and Myanmar borders, enjoying a bit of warmth while the rest of China embraced itself for the onset of Winter. We first based ourselves in Kunming and visited the well-known Stone Forests (石林) - an area covering 400 square kilometers of stunning geologically-sculpted limestones, lying around 100km southeast of Kunming. The UNESCO national geological park was divided into different sections (大石林, 小石林, 步哨山, 乃古石林 etc.) covering calcium- and magnesium- rich spiky spires in different environments. We easily spent an entire day exploring the nooks and crannies mostly on foot, of this vast and awe-inspiring work-of-art from mother nature and we dragged ourselves back to Kunming for a late dinner at 9P.M.
The following day we spent a relaxing time on the lake side of Dianchi (滇池) where thousands of Siberian seagulls spent their Winter months basking in the warm sunshine and occasionally having a casual paddle on the lake. We moved on to the garden of (大觀樓) where Kunming residents enjoyed their weekends and we even spent a pleasant half an hour on the Ferris wheel where we had a commanding view over the nearby Dianchi. All in all, a nice day out as we readied ourselves for the next star Yunnan attraction - the famed photogenic Yuanyang rice terraces (元陽梯田) !
Having fond memories of our times in Yunnan (雲南) 5 years ago on our last leg of the Indo-China journey, we could hardly wait as this time we ventured back to beautiful Yunnan and hit south towards the Laos and Myanmar borders, enjoying a bit of warmth while the rest of China embraced itself for the onset of Winter. We first based ourselves in Kunming and visited the well-known Stone Forests (石林) - an area covering 400 square kilometers of stunning geologically-sculpted limestones, lying around 100km southeast of Kunming. The UNESCO national geological park was divided into different sections (大石林, 小石林, 步哨山, 乃古石林 etc.) covering calcium- and magnesium- rich spiky spires in different environments. We easily spent an entire day exploring the nooks and crannies mostly on foot, of this vast and awe-inspiring work-of-art from mother nature and we dragged ourselves back to Kunming for a late dinner at 9P.M.
The following day we spent a relaxing time on the lake side of Dianchi (滇池) where thousands of Siberian seagulls spent their Winter months basking in the warm sunshine and occasionally having a casual paddle on the lake. We moved on to the garden of (大觀樓) where Kunming residents enjoyed their weekends and we even spent a pleasant half an hour on the Ferris wheel where we had a commanding view over the nearby Dianchi. All in all, a nice day out as we readied ourselves for the next star Yunnan attraction - the famed photogenic Yuanyang rice terraces (元陽梯田) !
