Stone Forests and Temples - Kunming and Dali (31st Oct – 4th Nov)

Arriving in Kunming we realised we had arrived at a different temperature zone compared to everywhere else we had been in China. On stepping off the plane it was bright sunshine and about 20 degrees which was a welcome relief. Kunming is known as the city of “eternal spring” because that describes its climate. Temperatures range from about 10 at night to 21 in the day the whole year round. It means that flowers are always blooming and they have 2 harvests a year.

Anyway first stop was the Stone Forest, a geological phenomenon. Basically thousands of limestone pinnacles that have been eroded over the years (if you're reading this Dad you would have loved it!). Some of the pinnacles are supposed to look like things such as an elephant. We had a lovely walk through some of the narrow passages and steep inclines up to the top of the forest where we had a great view. It was really nice to be in a natural setting rather than the bleak high rises which is what we have seen for the rest of the trip in China (even on the boat trip there were lots of high rises to house the displaced people after the dam project).

The next morning we had a 5 hour bus journey further East to the ancient town of Dali. This is a beautiful town set in front of a lake with mountains (the start of the Himalayas) behind. First stop was to explore a temple complex which spread up the hillside. There were 3 ancient Pagodas and behind them leading up the mountain different temples leading to a massive one with a ginormous Buddha  inside. It was really nice to be able to explore around the complex ourselves, however we did not always understand what we were seeing as all explanations were in Chinese.

Next morning we went out to one of the surrounding villages. This area is populated by ethnic groups. Most people young and old were wearing their traditional clothes. We went inside a local courtyard and market.

In the afternoon we went out on a boat on the lake (the 7’th largest in China) we went over to a traditional island and walked round the village on the island.