In the morning, the driver and guide will collect you from the hotel for the one-hour drive to Shilin county. En route, you can admire the landscape and get a quick glimpse into the local life.

The Kunming Stone Forest is a bizarre and magical place where striking limestone pillars rise up amongst lakes, ponds, forests, caves, underground rivers and waterfalls, to create a unique landscape. Walking through the labyrinth of tightly-packed, natural stone formations will confirm that you are among something remarkable.

You will explore the area by following a series of winding paths, leading from one breathtaking vista to the next. As befits such an enchanted landscape, the region comes with its own fables. According to the Yi people, the forest was the birthplace of a beautiful girl called Ashima who was forbidden to marry her true love and so she chose instead to turn into a stone pillar in the forest. There is even a rock within the forest said to be that of Ashima – it resembles a young girl with a scarf on her head and a basket on her back. After wandering through these intricate formations, sit and relax over lunch in a local restaurant near the Stone Forest.