A Stone Forest
28 Aug 2007
In the hilly area Chongqing in
China‘s heartland, a previously unknown
stone forest has been discovered at a
mountain summit 1,300 metres above sea level.
The mountain has a mighty
name: Mt Mr Thunder’s Cover (Leigonggan
Shan 雷公盖山), and the locals
customarily keep themselves at arm’s length
from its top. What they afraid of is not its
thundering roars, but its silent mystic. The
residents living nearby would warn mountain
hikers, if there is any, that there is only
one narrow path winding across the peak, and
if you do know that secret trial well, once
you get in, you may never be able to get out
again. For this, the summit is well held in
both fear and awe. Few people have ever dared
to venture deep into this complicated stone
matrix, while children are strictly forbidden
from approaching the tip of Mr Thunder’s
Cover, with the only human trace being those
left by the medicine men concessionary
explore the area for wonder drugs.
with a large number of fowls
and wild cats hopping among the undergrowth
between the rocks, became known to public
after a local TV station accidentally bumped
into the region.
Had this lofty region not been
accidentally treaded upon by local tv
reports, the secluded rocky heaven of fowls
and cats might continue to keep its secret
existence from the humans.
According to the TV guys’
first-hand observation, the stones are all in
an amazing black colour, with the tallest
reach 3 metres high. In this stone forest, a
cave that has Stalactites grow everywhere
from water dripping off the ceilings has also
been detected.
The rocky woods covers an
extensive area of about 20 hectares,
equivalent to 20 standard football fields. As
the terrain is the part of the karst
landform, more stalactite hollows are
expected to be found in this immense stone
jungle.
