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Caption: _______ STONE FOREST the
First Wonder of the World
Caption: 120 kilometers south of Kunming, China exists an ancient area that was once under a vast ocean and home to a multitude of sea-life.
It is the first wonder of the world and one of the most amazing landscapes I've ever seen.
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Caption: EXPLORE The path that wanders endlessly through these ancient beautiful karst formations will have you ducking and crawling.
Caption: breathless The anticipation was overwhelming me on the three hour taxi ride from my hotel in Kunming. I'd done my research on the Stone Forest and in my mind I compared the sense of perspective to the Grand Canyon in the United States.
I expected it to be so vast that understanding it would require meditation and pause.
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Caption: 270 million years old
Caption: On assignment for National Geographic Magazine there's always a sense of pressure in the back of your mind. As I walked in with the team, I was blemished by a rash of emotions.
Something I'd never felt before... A mixture of beauty and focus as I double-timed my running to somehow find the best place to set up my Unmanned Aircraft and "Fly the Camera" in a place I'd never seen and had yet to understand.
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Caption: scale PAGODA
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Caption: VISUALIZE
Caption: On the first flight, I flew a video camera so that I could get the lay of the land and pocket a few moments for the video which was later created.
The second flight, I made 30 images carefully designed to capture the lines and beauty of this unimaginable area.
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Caption: L I N E S
drawn by time
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Caption: 96,000 acres
of karst formations
Caption: Two days later, our time in Shilin is over. We have to move to our next region in China. This bitter sweet departure was my first impression of a country that I immediately fell in love with.
People as wonderful as the land they live on; I'll always long for more.
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Caption: enjoy FALL COLORS
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Caption: Stone Forest (Shilin), known since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.).
Caption: @natgeo
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