Because of its richest morphological diversity, the unrivalled natural beauty displayed by Stone Forest has long been praised in China. The well-known Chinese painter Mi Fu (1051-1107) summarized the strange beauty of stones in four words, i.e."thin, wrinkled, holed, and penetrated", and the Stone Forest is complete in all features of the beauty. Everywhere in the Stone Forest are the odd rocks, which rarely exist in many other famous mountains of China. The Stone Forest is a marvelous spectacle created by nature and its rock-shapes are more beautiful than the pictures painted by painters and more attractive than the rockeries forged by garden-makers. The Stone Forest is the natural model of the Chinese rockery-making art, the natural example of the traditional Chinese painting and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for painters and garden-makers.

Different shapes of the rocks: pinnacle, column, pagoda and mushroom

The assemblages of the odd rocks in the Stone Forest are countless and varied. There are single-shaped models such as “Stone Elephant” and “Stone Camel”; double shaped models such as "Two Birds Feeding” and “Mother and Son Traveling Together”; two spectacles of one stone such as “A Camel Riding on an Elephant ” and one spectacle of many stones such as “the Stone City”. There are two rocks snuggling up to each other like two lovers meeting after a long separation and one rock towering aloft among a lot of rocks like a herdsman tending sheep. In the Major and Minor Stone Forests, the closely spaced rock-pillars, which are only 2-5m apart, provide a wide vision to visitors who may relax their tense mind and feel carefree and content while walking among them. The change of rock combinations is unlimited, and thus served as reference to any aesthete.

Irregular shapes of the rocks inside the Geopark

The magnificent view of karst caves with varied shapes of stalactites, stalagmites and rock-pillars is comparable to the Stone Forest. Sometimes the path inside a cave is not easy to squeeze through, sometimes as wide as a hall. There are caves beside caves, concealed within caves or connected with other caves, like an underground labyrinth. The big mushroom-shaped stalagmite of the Zhiyun Cave (Cloud Cave) and the cloud- like ceiling of the Baiyun Cave (White Cloud Cave) are the peculiar models of karst caves in this region. They are worth appreciating.

The color of the stone forest in the morning, afternoon, evening and night

The scenery of the Stone Forest is in bright colors. The rocks of the Major and Minor Stone Forests are mainly dyed with grayish white, while the rocks of the Naigu Stone Forest appear in light black. The green and luxuriant trees and the white or black rocks set off one another. To the green, black and white is added the forth color, reddish brown of the soil. The four colors form the basic tone of the Stone Forest.

The colors of the Stone Forest change with the season, climate and light. It is not the same on fine days as on rainy days, nor is it the same in the morning as in the evening. The variations of vegetation in four seasons bring more changes to the colors of the Stone Forest. In the dry seasons of winter and spring it's fine and clear for many days

The color of stone forest is different in fine and rainy days

running. On the background dominated by the blue sky and white clouds, the grayish white, light black, emerald green and reddish brown are woven into a picture like an

The scenery of Shilin Geopark in the spring summer, autumn and winter

oil painting created by nature. As for the wet seasons from May to October, when the sun shines again after the rain, the rainbow crosses the blue sky and the air becomes so pure and fresh that one will find the unrivalled brilliance of the world. At sunrise and sunset the bright and clear outlines of the mountains are set in a sharp contrast with light; on moonlit nights when the land is enveloped in a curtain of darkness the Stone Forest is just like the fairyland described in children's stories or like a scenery picture of traditional Chinese painting.

Various rock surface solution features

The mild temperature and rainfall endowed by nature make flowers bloom from time to time, camellias like raging fires, azaleas in a riot of color, lily magnolias tall and erect, primroses spreading out as brocade, lilies delicate and fragrant, orchids nice and noble in purplish red, purplish blue, pink, scarlet and orange, spring up all over the land or dot the greens.

The sheerness and magnificence of the Stone Forest doesn't exist in height or big size, but in breathless thrilling. The “Sword-blade rock” sits on a small stone, and "A Critical Situation" looks so dangerous as if the rocks would fall. This is dangerous in a visual sense. To climb up and down the "Lotus Peak", one seems to sit on a mountain of knives and swords. This is the danger experienced by the mind of the tourist. The Stone Forest impartially distributes this beauty regarding danger, i.e. the danger of object and the danger in the feeling of subject. The Stone Forest is a theoretical treasure house of aesthetics.

The Stone Forest's beauty of wilderness contains the aesthetical principle of primitive nature. When you are personally on the scene, walking on the rock block, entering the rock gates, stepping on wild weeds and exploring a secluded wood, you will find everything fresh and new, the singing birds on the hill rock, densely-dispersed precipitous rocks, whiffs of mountain breeze and sweet flowers, an intensely wild smell of mountain bringing you back to remote primitive times. Only that state can help people build up the artistic conception of natural beauty of wilderness.

In opposition to many people's understanding, the Stone Forest tells us that in the wild beauty of primitive nature there exist purity, clearness and gracefulness. Owing to the protection against pollution, the water and air of the Stone Forest are of superior quality. Surrounded by green hills whose inverted reflection flutters in water, the serene lake is quiet. A branch of mountain reclines beside the lake, like a beautiful girl sleeping soundly, attractive in her sleeping posture. This is the gracefulness of wild nature.

Most of the scenes in the Stone Forest are not named, which not only has kept the inherence of wild nature beauty, but also leaves as much room as possible for people's aesthetic appreciation, letting them return to their childhood to hear the sounds of nature. In this sense, the Stone Forest is a great teacher of aesthetics.

Quiet stone forests, murmuring streams, stretching mountains and mirror-like lakes are in harmony with water and mountain. Blue sky, white clouds, and green hills, big rocks are in harmony with heaven and the Earth. The outlines of stones, hills, lakes ponds and the green, black, white brown are in harmony with shape and color. Birds singing in woods and flowers blooming all over rocks are signs of harmony of human beings with their surroundings. Lastly the national myths and legends, the rock inscriptions and poems are an integral part of nature in the Stone Forest. All of them embody the supreme principle of Chinese aesthetics, i.e. the integrity combining the natural with human.

 the Naigu Stone Forest Scenic Area