The Stone Forest is situated in the Lunan Yu Autonomous County 126 kilometers southeast of Kunming. A typical karst formation, the Stone Forest covers an area of more than three hundred square kilometres. Kunming is nicknamed City of Spring due to the fact that it is covered all year round with the rich verdure of trees and plants. Endowed with a pleasant climate, the city''s 15,000 square kilometres of land is adorned with more than 400 kinds of flowers. The Stone Forest dates to the Ming Dynasty and is consider by some to be the First Wonder of the World.

Scientific research has shown that what is now the Stone Forest was 270 million years ago an immense expanse of water with a vast stretch of limestone sediment formed over the years on the seafloor. As a result of the crustal movement, the seabed rose gradually and a large piece of land thus came into being.