Strange Stone Mountain

Strange Stone Mountain

Strange Stone Mountain is a national AA-level tourist attraction.

Guide: Strange Stone Mountain is 60 kilometers from the county town, connected by a 10-kilometer dirt road to the asphalt highway leading from the county to the coal mine. It is located at the easternmost end of Xiaojia Mountain, 7 kilometers northwest of Barkol Lake. Introduction: The most peculiar feature of Strange Stone Mountain is the numerous small stone caves scattered across the mountain. These caves, varying in size, come in round and square shapes, resembling Buddhist shrines, beehives, sheep’s stomachs—up close, the small holes aren’t deep and are very smooth, as if carved by hand. The small ones are about one meter in diameter, while the larger ones, called “box seats,” can fit over ten people. Several mountains are “riddled with holes” from the mountaintop to the foot, some known as “Honeycomb Cliff,” others as “Thousand Buddha Cave,” “Ten Thousand Buddha Shrine,” or “Thousand Cave Cliff.” Whenever heavy rain pours, water streams down from the mountaintop, forming countless small cascading cave entrances—a breathtaking sight.

To climb to the top of Strange Stone Mountain, there is an ancient stone staircase, very steep and narrow, much like the “Thousand-Foot Precipice” and “Hundred-Foot Gorge” of Mount Hua. At the summit is a “Gate to Heaven” formed by two huge rocks standing upright with only a one-foot-wide crevice in between—too narrow for overweight people to pass through. Even more remarkably, the rugged and steep mountaintop of Strange Stone Mountain is actually a flat “high plain,” where cars can drive up from the back. Ticket / Opening Hours: 10 RMB

Hami, Xinjiang