Trip Daily Diary - 04/17/05

2005 CHINA TRIP - DAILY DIARY
4-16-05 The Stone Forest

The Stone Forest
by Ryan Duncan

Today was a very tiring day. We took a long bus ride to the Stone Forest. When we began to walk around I saw how big each of the stones was. Some of the stones had to be at least 100 feet tall. Also the forest itself is enormous. We hiked for several hours and still did not see half of the area. There were many small caverns, very narrow carved stone stairs and narrow passageways throughout the forest and Noel got stuck in one.

Personally, I am still in awe of the size of the forest as well as the size of the rocks. It is hard to imagine what kind of natural phenomena could have caused the rocks to stick up 100 feet out of the ground. It is also hard to imagine the amount of power it must have taken to carve the paths throughout the forest, which the Suni people have done. There are 36 minorities that live in the Yunnan provence, and the Suni live in the Stone Forest area. They have their own indigenous dress, language and customs and revere the Stone Forest as their homeland.

The Stone Forest visit was a wonderful, and tiring, experience, but it is a truly amazing thing to see and I'm glad I got to go there.

Jenna and Jan climbing some of the thousands of carved stone stairs through the Forest.

Elephant Rock

Noel and Kate holding up an important part of the Stone Forest.

Tyler attacks a floppy pop after the long hike!

Joe is sitting on Lotus Peak. The floor of the Stone Forest is not even in view, so you can imagine how high these peaks are.

Perrin's Peapod takes a break.

Top: The going was a little tight in places.

Left: Katlyn and Tyler in the Pagoda getting the long view.

Nearing the top of Lotus Rock are Joe, Jess, Chris, Mary, Justin and Stephanie.

Fourteen western teens attract a lot of attention in China, and these six American girls have also had their fair share. This Malaysian man asked to have his picture taken with them for his vacation photo souvenir.

AACE students were kind enough to point out to Ms. Brooks that her status as the "cultural relic" (see the Forbidden City page) has now been upgraded to "geological relic".