A Trip to Stone Forest and Jiuxiang, Yunnan China

Stone Forest or Shilin (石林) and Jiuxiang (九乡) are considered two must visit places in Kunming, Yunnan (昆明, 云南). We visited both places on the first day of our trip to Yunnan. We spent another day visiting several attractions in Kunming city as well. The arrangement was done by Saksoon Travel Agency.

Both places are really beautiful, and really require a lot of walking. Comfortable clothes and non-slippery footwear are really important to ensure an enjoyable trip, especially in Jiuxiang, where we had to walk through wet and slippery ground and climb more than one thousand steps of stairs. Anyway, these stairs should not be an obstacle for those with good physical fitness.

Stone Forest (Shilin)
Stone Forest is around 90 minutes drive from Kunming city. We reached the ticket counter at around 11 am. The sky was cloudy in October. The cooling weather was just nice for an enjoyable stroll in the park.

The park is filled with uncountable natural limestone rising above the ground, spreading over an area of 400 km square, resembling a huge forest of stones. Actually, the whole area was once under the sea. It started to emerge and rise as a highland area due to the movement of earth's crust and upper mantle. The extensive erosion and weathering carved the limestone into a trunk-like pillars.

There are two major areas within Stone Forest- Major Stone Forest Scenic Area and Minor Stone Forest Scenic Area. We went through some part of the major scenic area by foot, and then toured around the minor scenic area by electric car (battery car). We stayed in the area for 2 hours 30 minutes. We left the site at around 1:30 pm for lunch before we continued our trip to Jiuxiang Scenic Area.

We would recommend to spend more time at the major scenic area, as we could see more interesting stones there. The scenic areas in Stone Forest is far away from ticketing counter. Thus paying RMB 25 for the electric car transit service is really necessary. Detail of entrance fees for Stone Forest are available at Travelchinaguide.com. 

The ticketing area is nicely decorated.

From the ticketing area (upper left), we have to walk around 200 meters to the electric car shuttle station (upper right). The ride took around 5 minutes to the entrance of the Stone Forest (lower right). There were many visitors using the shuttle service.

Stone Forest is an UNESCO heritage site. 

Karst at the major scenic area.

The major scenic area is beautiful with the combination of natural and man-made landscapes.

The words "林后" (pronoun as lin-hou), was calligraphed by Yun Long- a general who once ruled Yunnan from 1927 to 1945.   

There are several beautiful lakes in this area as well. This lake is called Lotus Lake, with a stone resembles lotus flower erects at the middle of the lake. 

Although most of the foliage are still green, some have turned yellowish in October.

There are many other interesting stones around the scenic area. One of them is called eagle stone. Anyway, it looks more like a dinosaur than an eagle to us.

Some of the area were full with visitors.

We took our lunch at a restaurant nearby Stone Forest Scenic Area. Then, we continued our trip to Jiuxiang Scenic Area.

Jiuxiang Scenic Area

Jiuxiang Scenic Area is located 50 kms north of Stone Forest Scenic Area. From Stone Forest, we took about 1 hour drive to reach the scenic area. Unlike Stone Forest, where the limestone erected from ground, the limestone at Jiuxiang formed caves and tunnels deep into the ground. 

We have to descend 53 meters straight down into the Grand Underground Valley with elevator. Then we need to walk for around 1 km along the valley before entering the cave, which leads us to Grand Lion Hall. Food, beverages, and resting area are available there. The path turns challenging from Grand Lion Hall. First, we have to go a long way down the stairs to Twin Waterfall. Then, we have to climb up and down through Fairy Field. Finally, we have to climb around 300 steps to go back to the surface.  

Although the cave is filled with cooling air, high humidity and a lot of walking will cause the whole underground trip sweaty and sticky. Thus, we would recommend to go light with sportswear. We could get some refreshment and restore our energy at Grand Lion Cave. We stayed at the site for 2 hours. Detail of entrance fees for Jiuxiang are available at Travelchinaguide.com. 

The entrance to Jiuxiang cave system. We can see the water gushing into the Grand Underground Valley (left to right).

We walked through Grand Underground Valley. The valley is around 1 km long, leading us right to the entrance of the cave.

Grand Lion Cave is named after this stone.

Grand Lion Cave is huge, with a small exhibition on the discovery of early human settlement in the cave.

Twin Waterfall in the cave. This was the filming site for the movie "Myth" by Jackie Chan.

The underground terrace from above at Fairy Fields.

The terrace from another angle.

The terrace from below.

We started to climb back to the surface via Bat Cave.

It would be a disaster if we have to walk back to the car park from another end of the cave. Luckily, cable car service was provided to bring us back to the entrance point.

Nice view from the cable car.

We returned to Kunming for dinner and stayed overnight at Xin Sheng Da Hong Sheng Hotel (鑫盛达宏晟酒店). We started our long journey to Dali early the next morning.

More about our trip in Kunming are available at:

[Stone Forest and Jiuxiang Scenic Area][Attractions in Kunming City]

[Attractions in Dali][Tiger Leaping Gorge- A Must Visit Site in Yunnan]

[Short Trip to Shangri-La][Attractions in Lijiang] 

The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty (Henan and Xi'an Trip Day 6)

Day 6, we departed early from Lingbao and reached Xi'an 3 hours later. After lunch, we headed straight to the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The mausoleum is very big and can be seen far away from the highway. Today, more than 600 burial pits have been discovered and excavated at the area. Our target was the most visited and most famous one- the Museum of First Qin Emperor's Mausoleum (秦始皇兵马俑博物馆), where the Terracotta of Warriors and Horses (兵马俑) were found.

The mausoleum was the burial place of Ying Zheng (259 - 210 BC), the first feudal emperor in China. According to history, he was the first king to conquer and united whole China. He believed in the life after death, thus started to build his own mausoleum at the age of 13- the year he inherited the kingdom of Qin from his father. The massive construction lasted 39 years, involving 720 thousands workers.

The excavation has found the pits with pottery imperial guards, royal stables, armors and weapons, civil officials, servants, entertainers, gardens, rare birds and beasts, chariots, and many more, showing the emperor's determination to bring whatever he had and enjoyed thorough his life to the underground. How big is the mausoleum? Estimated by China official- 56 square km. By looking at its scale, it might be the biggest and most magnificent mausoleum in the world. It was listed as an UNESCO Heritage Site in 1987.

We reached the ticket counter at 2 pm. The place was flooded by visitors. The entrance fee was CNY150 per person. Again, the electric car was there to sent us from the entrance to the museum, and like many other places, it was a one way service. We were required to travel 1 km back to the entrance on foot through a walking street afterward.

The museum consists of a few buildings- the exhibition hall and 3 pits, and a souvenir shop. All three pits cover an area of 20,000 square meters, with the most interesting terracotta army found in no. 1 pit. The no. 1 pit contains more than 6000 terracotta army arranged in a tactical formation. We spent around 2 hours in the museum. It was a lot of walking, plus we had to fight our way through the crowd to reach the viewing area. Well, the museum with terracotta of warriors and horses is really a must visit site in China.

The construction of mass rapid transit line was just beside the highway (upper left). It was a bit hazy at Lingbao but the sky turned bright when we reached Xi'an (upper right). There were tolls! (lower right). The crop fields can be seen spanning in Henan, but getting lesser when we reached Xi'an.

We reached the The Museum of the First Qin Emperor's Mausoleum around 2 pm. There were not many visitors at the shopping area (upper left) but the ticket counter was crowded (upper right). We moved to the entrance of the museum (lower right), which was around 1 km away from the museum buildings. The electric car provides one way trip to the museum buildings, with no extra charge.

We started with the exhibition hall with unearthed artifacts (upper right). The hall was extremely crowded and we could barely find a place to stand, especially in the rooms where the artifacts were exhibited. We could barely hear the explanation from our tour guide as well. Two of the most precious items are the bronze chariots, which were excavated in 1978 (upper and lower right) . The experts spend 8 years to restore the chariots to their present states. Both chariots were carved with stunning details, with even the muscle, joint, and even nails were crafted lifelike. We were lucky to be able to take photos (without flashlight) of the two chariots, as most of the time, we could see only heads of other visitors.

Then, we went to visit no. 1 pit situated on the left side of the museum complex. No. 2 pit is located on the right, while no. 3 pit is behind no. 1 pit.

Closer look at no. 1 pit.

This is what we came for, the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang! We were waiting, squeezing, and waiting, and squeezing again for more than 10 minutes to see this stunning scene due to the massive crowd there.

A closer look at the army.

The observation platform was extremely crowded. This photo was taken on our way down the right alley.

Restored terracotta- foot soldiers and cavalries. All the soldiers have different expression. They have even different hairstyle.

Restoration in progress- the experts need to reconstruct the damaged terracotta piece by piece like playing jigsaw puzzle.

No. 2 pit was partially excavated. All the terracotta were still burried underground. There were less visitors there.

No 3 pit was much smaller with less terracotta. It had been fully excavated.

This was how the no. 3 pit looks like. Most of the terracotta army placed there were the officers, showing that the pit might be a command office. We could see a worker (in pink) was collecting rubbish which was thrown by visitors into the pit.

We took a rest at the souvenir shop (upper left) and bought a book "An Exploration of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor" with CNY150 (upper right). The person in charge claimed that the book was sold only in the museum. Anyway, it is a book with detailed information about the whole mausoleum with systematic records about the excavation of the burial pits. The best part was, we got the signature of Yang Zhifa (杨志发), the discoverer of the terracotta on our book. For us, it is a book worth reading. We walked for 1 km through a shopping pedestrian street to our bus (lower row).

Next, we stopped by Huaching Gong (华清宫，亦称华清池), the winter palace of the emperors. The palace is also known as Huaching Hot Spring or Huaching Pool. The pool is located at the northern foot of Mount Li, around 30 minutes west from the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum. Originally served as the bathing area for emperors, Xuanzong Emperor of Tang Dynasty extensively built the area into a palace in 723 AD. According to the old inscription, the palace buildings spanned from the top to the foot of the mountain. It served as the living palace for the Xuanzong Emperor and Yang Guifei (唐玄宗与杨贵妃).

However, the palace was not properly maintained after Tang Dynasty. Today, most of the palace buildings there were built in 1980s, based on the record of history. Only the pools and the bathing area are the real relics from the past.

Huaching Pool was also the place where the Xi'an incident took place in 1936, where Chiang Kaishek was forced by Zhang Xueliang to be united with Chinese Communist Party to fight against invading Japanese army. Beside Hua Ching Pool, there are several other bathing pools built by other emperors around the hot spring area.

We couldn't deny that the pool and the palace buildings were really beautiful and nicely maintained. For us, it is a place worth a visit because of our knowledge about the love story of Xuanzong Emperor and Yang Guifei, and how the emperor lost his kingdom because of the beauty. However, it might not be a good place for those who has no idea about these historical characters. With the entrance fee of CNY110 per person, it is expensive compared to the Museum of the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum.

Huaching Pool entrance.

Beautiful scenery of antique Tang Dynasty buildings with Lily Pond (芙蓉池) is what we can see right after the entrance.

Pool of Nine Dragon (九龙湖). Li Mountain can be seen far behind the palace buildings.

Some of the beautiful buildings inside the palace. The royal pools of Tang Dynasty (唐御汤) are located behind the Pool of Nine Dragon (lower left). A big statue of half-naked Yang Guifei was built in the middle of the royal pools area.

Bathing pool specially built for Yang Guifei by Xuanzong Emperor.

The pools built for Xuanzong Emperor (upper left), Taizong Emperor (upper right), and  the servants (lower right) are opened to visitors as well. We have the chance to wash our hand and face with the water from the hotspring at a special area beside the Yang Guifei statue.

Then, we continued our visit to the former residence of Chiang Kaishek. This photo of Ling Shing's parents were taken at the gate of the residence.

The place is really beautiful. The building with red pillars on the right was the guard house.

Wu Jian Ting (五间厅) behind us was the former office and resting area of Chiang Kaishek.

All the furniture was placed at their original places.

We left Huaching Pool at around 6:10 pm and headed to our hotel at Xi'an. We were caught by heavy traffic in the city area, and the trip to Xi An Ramada Hotel took us around 1 hour 15 minutes. Despite tiredness, we still took our opportunity to roam around the Muslim's night market (回民一条街) which is just a few hundred meters away from our hotel. We will share more about the night market and our hotel in our upcoming posts.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]
[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]
[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]
[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]

Longmen Grottoes and Museum of Charriot in Luoyang (Henan and Xi'an Trip Day 5)

Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟) has a long history. 493 AD, Emperor Xiao Wen of North Wei (北魏孝文帝) started building the first grotto at Longmen Mountain (龙门山). Then, many emperors followed until the carving of grottoes stopped 400 years later in Northern Song Dynasty (some sources stated from North Wei to Tang Dynasty). More than 100 thousands of statues, 3800 inscription steles, and 80 pagodas were carved 1 km along the river of Yi (伊河), 12 kms from Luoyang City. Completely devoted to Buddhism, the grottoes show the stone work skills in China more than one millennium ago.

Endured the local vandalism and looting, destruction by wars, and damage by nature elements, Longmen Grottoes received the status of UNESCO Heritage Site in 2000. It was the third UNESCO Heritage Site that we visited in Henan Province. The entrance fee for the site was CNY100, with extra CNY10 for one way trip with electric car. Later, we took a boat ride with CNY25 per person back to the car park.

We stayed at Longmen Grottoes for around 2 hours 30 minutes. The shopping area outside of Longmen Grottoes offered various souvenirs and local delicacies. We bought two Chinese stone stamp with our names with really good bargained price there (about 1/2 of what we could get in our country).

The electric car stopped at the ticketing counter. Then, we had to walk for a few hundred meters to the entrance of Longmen Grottoes. We enjoyed the nice view of Yi River on our way to the entrance (upper row). The tourist center (lower left) is located near to the majestic entrance.

The weather was cold and comfy with few visitors. It was a lucky morning for us.

The caves were carved deep into the limestone cliff along Longmen Mountain. Stairs were built for the visitors to access the higher caves.

Our tour guide was telling the history of the sculptures in the caves.

The Buddha statue with "V" pose were believed to be built in Tang Dynasty by Tang Gaozong (唐高宗李治). The statue is one of the most popular photo spot in Longmen Grottoes (upper left). The cave housing the statue was exquisitely decorated (upper right). The uncompleted work by the last emperor of Song Dynasty (lower left)- Moya Sanfo Kan (摩崖三佛龛) revealed the process how a ordinary stone being carved into a statue. The stone wall of Longmen Mountain is dotted by many sculptures with different sizes.

Wanfo Cave (万佛洞） or the cave with ten thousand Buddha is another attraction at Longmen Grottoes. The wall of the cave is filled with 15 thousands sculptures.

What is the size of the smallest sculpture in Longmen Grottoes? These 1 inch tall sculptures in Wanfo Cave are really small, but still not the smallest.

Lianhua Dong (莲花洞) or Lotus Cave is another interesting cave there. The Buddha statue was carved in standing position with a hand holding a walking staff. There is a big lotus flower carved on the top of the cave as well. Another interesting thing to see in this cave- the smallest statues with 2 cm long caved on the both sides of the Buddha statue.

 The red arrow marks the location of the smallest statues in Lotus Cave.

The old name of Longmen Grottoes- Yique or the Gate of River Yi was carved at the entrance of Lotus Cave.

The biggest Buddha statues are located at the far southern end of Longmen Grottoes. To see them, we need to conquer the stairs.

This is the biggest statue in Longmen Grottoes- 17.2 m tall with the head 4 m long and ears 1.9 m long. Some local sources stated that the Buddha statue was built with the expression imitating Empress Wu Zetian (武则天), as a token of appreciation for her donation. With her donation, the statue was completed around 675 AD.

Panoramic view of the Fengxian Si (奉先寺) or Fengxian Temple- the temple where the colossal statues locates. Click on this photo to see the bigger view.

Guyang Cave (古阳洞) is the oldest cave in Longmen Grottoes. Built during the year of Emperor Xiaowen, the cave contains 19 well calligraphed inscriptions and exquisite stone works.

This is the last cave we visited- Yaofang Cave (药方洞) or the Cave of Prescription. The cave recorded 140 traditional Chinese prescriptions which can be used to cure more than 70 illness.

We took a boat ride from the end the grottoes back to the entrance. The boat trip gave us a nicer view of Longmen Mountain.

This is how the caves were built on the cliff of Longmen Mountain.

The former residence of Baijuyi (白居易) is located at the other side of Yi River, opposite of Longmen Grottoes. The tomb of this well-known poet is just next to his former residence.

Luoyang City was the capital for 13 dynasties with more than 100 emperors. The city has the history of 4000 years, starting from Xia Dynasty. Instead of the vibrant development with modern high rises, historical icons like Longmen Grottoes and Guanlin Temple scatters around the city. Back to Luoyang, we took our lunch at Kunyang Restaurant (lower right). We took our dinner the night before at the same restaurant (the one without ice cube). After lunch, we moved on to visit another thousand years old relics- the excavated pit at the Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits (天子六骑博物馆).

Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits (天子六骑博物馆), or we would like to directly translate it into Emperor's Six Horses Chariot Museum was built on the real sacrificial pit of Zhou Dynasty's Emperor. According to the ancient books, emperor's chariot was driven by six horses, while feudal kings five, ministers four, scholars and bureaucrats three, officials two, and commoners one. This record was proven by the discovery of the pit in 2002, during the construction to expand the Luohe Plaza. The museum now is located at the center of the Dongzhou Wangcheng Square (王城广场) or the Eastern Zhou Emperor City Square.

The museum entrance fee was CNY30 per person, while tour guide was available with CNY50 per trip, with opening hours from 9 am - 5 pm. The museum was quite small, with three different sections. The largest section was the burial pit itself. We spent 45 minutes in the museum.

The entrance of the museum is marked by a Chariot with 6 horses. The whole museum is located a level below the ground.

The surrounding area of the museum.

The burial pit of the museum, with the second chariot from the right was buried with six horses. There were other chariots with two horses and four horses. There were hunting dogs tied to each chariot as well.

Both Longmen Grottoes and Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits are must visit places in Luoyang as they carries important information from the past. The historical values of these sites are beyond measurement. For more information about these two sites, you can visit Tour-Beijing site about Longmen Grottoes and Museum of Luoyang Museum.

We left Luoyang at around 3:30 pm and took a three hour drive westward to Lingbao, a town in between Luoyang and Xi'an. We rested at Zingy Good Hotel and prepared ourselves for the trip to Terracotta of The Warriors and Horses in Xi'an.

[Kaifeng, Henan One Day Trip] [Yuntai Mountain, Truly a World Heritage]

[Henan Museum and Huang He Scenic Area]

[Dengfeng Shaolin Temple and Guanlin Temple] [Longmen Grottoes & Charriot Luoyang]
[The Magnificent Terracotta Army of Qin Dynasty]

[Xi'an City One Day Trip] [Xi'an Huimin Street- Food & Shopping]