Caves Of Tongjin County

China Caves Project

Dick Willis

From Jiingjia the group had intended to move to Xianbei. However, they were taken instead to Tongjin where a new cave had been discovered above the existing show cave of Xia Gang Yin Dong (Lower Telepathy Cave). The local Government were keen to know if the two were connected.

Acomodation was provided at the resort hotel of the Wuling Mountain villa. From here a tourist boat ride goes up the Tongjin River through an impressive limestone gorge lined with bamboo forests and with monkeys playing, oblivious of the tourists. The gorge features a number of thermal springs, the hottest at 60 degrees Centigrade began to flow after an earthquake in 1989.

The gorge and the show cave of Xia Gang Yin Dong receive about 200,000 visitors a year. The new cave Rufo Dong (Buddha Cave), proved to be only 260m long and with little of interest, although it was already being developed for tourists. It did not link with the lower cave. It lies on the hillside between an obvious blind entrance above and the main show cave which resurges into the river below. The main cave was surveyed for 442m of once impressive streamway that, like many Chinese show caves, has been largely destroyed by the pressure of visitors and lack of controls on litter and graffiti. The passage ends in stalagmite chokes, although there is a possibility that it may continue at water level.

Dick Willis

Photo: Tony Baker

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