Colorful Minority Dance at the Stone Forest 石林
The Stone Forest in Yunnan province is already spectacular as it is. It is a large collection of exposed karst which are quite common in this area. So common are they that this area and the surrounding provinces have places elevated to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Not really surprising since this place has a surreal beauty to it. It is said that it is also beautiful here at night, especially without the crowds but I don’t really plan on staying here for the night. There are nearby hotels here for the interested but I don’t think there are cheap ones.
Some Ethnic Performance at the Stone Forest 石林
The Chinese love beautiful places, and there are lots of these places here in the country. But not only that, they also like places with culture, or they call it special color 特色. So a place not only needs to be beautiful but also needs to have some cultural relevance. As Yunnan is known for its numerous minority tribes, the park authorities saw it fit to put some ethnic flavor in the park in the form of some cultural shows. These kinds of shows are very common in tourist areas even when it doesn’t seem to fit in. During my visit there was this group of minorities performing some dance in traditional clothes. The men were carrying some oversized guitar making some monotonous strumming sound, almost like a beat of a drum. It wore away very quickly since the performance wasn’t terribly interesting but the locals were lapping it up.
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