5 Amazing Places in Yunnan You Didn't Know Existed

In Xishuangbanna there is a forest made up entirely of one tree, or as it is called in Chinese, the “One Tree Forest”. How is this possible? This banyan tree is over 200 years old, and as the roots reached down from the original tree and planted themselves into the ground, they grew into trees, the root of these trees then did the same thing all over again. As time passed, these trees, already connected with each other, became even more entwined and entangled, and grew into more and more banyans until an entire interconnected banyan forest had taken root. This “one tree forest” is in Xishuangbanna’s Daluo township, about four hours away from Jinghong, which can be reached by air or by bus.

The YuanMou Earth Forest has been featured in several movies, including Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles and The Promise for its unbelievable landscapes that look almost Martian, with striking red and orange rock formations, canyons and mountains. The peaks are striped, with bold colors at the top fading into duller browns and greys towards the bottom. Some are sharp and pointed like swords while others are more squat, like pagodas. Yuanmou Earth Forest takes up about a 50 square kilometer area in Yuanmou county, which itself is known for its many fossil discoveries, including the discovery of one of the earliest known hominid fossils, the so-called “Yuanmou Man”. There are no busses from Kunming directly to the forest, so travelers will need to first take either the bus to Yuanmou or take the train to Panzhihua and get off at the stop for Huanguawu. Minibuses for the Earth Forest will depart regularly from either town.
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