18 May - For the second day, we hit the iconic tourist spot of Kunming - 石林 & 九乡. The 石林风景区 is a renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its spectacular natural limestone pillars and karst formations. Well, I am not really a rock person, so just here to 打卡 and move on. The weather under the sun is really hot, even with the temperature saying its only 25 degree Celsius.
The iconic 石林
The karst formations
The stone depicting a local folklore - “阿詩瑪” 傳說
For lunch, the driver took us to a local restaurant outside the scenic spot. We ordered 牛肝菌, 麻婆豆腐 and the traditional Yunnan iconic dish 汽锅鸡. Bad on us to not check the price before ordering and got kind of ripped off. Both the 牛肝菌 & 汽锅鸡 was priced at RMB $128, which is way too expensive. We found out later that other places only cost around half the price!
Stir fried 牛肝菌
麻婆豆腐
汽锅鸡 (Signature dish from Yunnan Province, famous for its unique cooking method. Instead of boiling the chicken directly in water, the ingredients are placed in a special clay pot and cooked entirely by circulating steam. This method naturally condenses the steam into a clear, nutrient-rich broth that captures the chicken's original flavor)
After lunch, we moved to our next destination - 九乡, which is famous for its Karst cave formations. To start the trip, we took a nice cable car ride overlooking fields of tea leaves, which some are used by local to smoke as cigarette.
Tea plantation
Next, we took a scenic boat ride through the spectacular karst gorge of 荫翠峡, also called the Valley of Love for it was the place for local young men and women to sing songs in order to find lovers. The valley stretches for about 600m, flanked with verdant trees.
Finally, we entered the main attraction, which is the 九乡溶洞. You entered the cave complex by first passing through 惊魂峡, a gorge about 700 meters long and nearly 100 meters deep. It was named in honor of those who attempted to create the trails without falling into the gorge.
惊魂峡
Cave formation which looked like an alien face
雄狮厅, which is also the movie《神话》取景地
神女宫
神田
