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Top 6 Tourist Caves in China with Google Earth Links

Jul 9, 2009

[sources]:1.3.4 nipic.com | 2. 向往成都 | 5. wikipedia | 6. fx222222

A cave is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. — wikipedia

Karst is a very unique geology pattern that creates magnificent landscapes. In a previous post, I showed you top 5 karst peak forests in China. Today, I will lead you to go underground and show you how lime stone karst pattern creates gorgeous caves beneath the peak forests.

Just like the karst peak forests, most karst caves here are located in the same area of China: southwestern part — except the last one.

You can view all these tourist caves in Google Earth here (KMZ file).

1. Zhijin Cave 织金洞 (Golden Cloth Cave) – A dream cave
Google Earth | Wiki | Location: Zhijin, Guizhou

“The King of Caves”, “A Cave Museum”. Zhijin Cave probably is the best cave in China.

2. Furong Cave 芙蓉洞 (Lotus Cave) – A colorful cave
Google Earth | Wiki | Location: Wulong, Chongqing

Discovered recently in 1993, Furong Cave is famous for its extreme diversity of speleothems formations. Here you can find the world’s most complete and colorful collection of speleothems, lots of which are only available here.

3. Huanglong Cave 黄龙洞 (Yellow Dragon Cave) – An all-round cave
Google Earth | Wiki | Location: Zhangjiajie, Hunan

Located in the infamous Wulingyuan Scenic Region, adjacent to one of Top 5 karst peak forests, Huanglong Cave is well known for its rich collection of cave views. Reservoir, river, waterfall, pool, hall, corridor, plus all kinds of lime stone speleothems formations you would expect in a cave, here you can find them all.

4. Tenglong Cave 腾龙洞 (Soaring Dragon Cave) – An impressive cave
Google Earth | Wiki | Location: Lichuan, Hubei

Perhaps the largest cave in China, Tenglong Cave is known for its engulfing of a major river – Qing Jiang River. The entire river is running in this cave for 16.8 km before coming above ground again.

It’s 52.8 km long, cover 200+ million square meters area. It’s highest roof point is 235m from bottom. There are 5 hill peaks inside its 10 major halls. And it also has more than 10 waterfalls inside.

Guilin Caves

A nice cave photo on Flickr. Taken in Guilin, Guangxi, China.

5. Xueyu Cave 雪玉洞 (Snow Jade Cave) – A cave of natural color
Google Earth | Wiki | Location: Fengdu, Chongqing

The young snowwhite maid of the caves’ world. Unlike the other caves that are formed dozens of thousands to hundreds of thousands years ago, Xueyu Cave is VERY young. Most speleothems here are formed less than ten thousand years ago, some of which are only three thousands years old. For this reason, speleothems in this cave are growing at a much faster tape than the others.

A rare pure white “Iceworld” cave. The carbonate salt here is very pure, so their speleothems looks white like snow and pure as jade.

6. Benxi Water Cave 本溪水洞 – A zigzag cave
Google Earth | Wiki | Location: Benxi, Liaoning

Unlike all the five caves above that are not far from each other in the southwestern China, this one is in the opposite corner of China. Located in eastern Liaoning, Benxi Water Cave is the longest water cave in the world that you can visit solely by boat. The underground river is 5800 long, threading though the entire cave. It’s wide and deep enough to hold lots of tourist boats.

[Scenic Splendor of China Series]
This is one post of the Scenic Splendor of China Series. In 2005.10, Chinese National Geography (CNG) selected 114 “most beautiful places” covering 17 different types of scenic patterns. The complete list is here. In Chinese. These scenic places will be covered individually in future.

[Chinese Keywords]
中国最美的地方 旅游洞穴



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