Mary is only just beginning to recover from a cold and decided not to brave walking in the very brisk weather this morning so she opted to stay at the hotel, take more pictures of the hotel grounds and maybe take a quick nap. Paul headed out with the guide and driver for a walk through a local village.
On the drive out of the area we stopped at a scenic overlook and took
lots more pictures, then drove on to Kunming and beyond to the Shilin
area.
If HD does not show at end of progress bar, click there for better
quality.
One of the most striking things today was the color of the sky. Generally the China sky's are grey from smog or haze or clouds. Today the sky was a remarkable vivid blue.
We also saw a lot of wind generators on the hills around the area. China is making an effort to generate cleaner energy.
On the way to our next sightseeing stop we stopped for lunch at what was a typical restaurant for us so far – definitely local, open air, 5 or 6 tables, choose your food from the selection in the cooler or spread out on the table and they cook it for you. We typically had a protein source (egg, beans, or tofu), rice of course, and a vegetable (broccoli, green beans, and asparagus were common) or more often some kind of leafy plant - some we knew, some we didn’t, and some we are pretty sure we would spray with Round-Up if they appeared in our yard. The food generally is good to very good, but some of which was very spicy. We tried new greens and old vegetables fixed in new delicious ways - Eggplant for example. At a couple of the hotels we ate dinner in restaurants that had some western food, which provided a nice respite from three weeks of Chinese for lunch and dinner and breakfast too, although most places had at least fruit and eggs and pastry. Except for one that had only noodles for breakfast.
On the way to our next sightseeing stop we stopped for lunch at what was a typical restaurant for us so far – definitely local, open air, 5 or 6 tables, choose your food from the selection in the cooler or spread out on the table and they cook it for you. We typically had a protein source (egg, beans, or tofu), rice of course, and a vegetable (broccoli, green beans, and asparagus were common) or more often some kind of leafy plant - some we knew, some we didn’t, and some we are pretty sure we would spray with Round-Up if they appeared in our yard. The food generally is good to very good, but some of which was very spicy. We tried new greens and old vegetables fixed in new delicious ways - Eggplant for example. At a couple of the hotels we ate dinner in restaurants that had some western food, which provided a nice respite from three weeks of Chinese for lunch and dinner and breakfast too, although most places had at least fruit and eggs and pastry. Except for one that had only noodles for breakfast.
We entered the Naigu Black Stone Forest area in the late afternoon. Amazingly there were no Chinese tourists (according to Frank they sightsee in the early morning and shop all afternoon) and we had the place totally to ourselves.
When the area was converted to a National Park all of the land of the local farmers was incorporated into the park and they were all given jobs within the park. There were a large number of them clearing out a large field of lavender flowers. Apparently the flowers had reached their peak and were going to be replaced with new flowers. What remained of the several acres and acres of flowers was awfully pretty.
The stone forests are limestone formations that have been eroded over the millions of years into columns, flutes and other interesting formations. From a distance the formations looked rather magical and beautiful.
When walking through them they seemed more mystical and whimsical.
 |
| Chinese "Romeo and Juliet" with boy attendants |
The hike took us to a viewing platform high on some of the formations. From there we could look down over the area. It did indeed look like a "Stone Forest".
More photos of the Naigu Black Stone forest.
Previous
Next
No comments:
Post a Comment