Hong Chi Ba 96 page 2: Trail to Tanjiawan


1996 Hong Chi Ba team members included: Jack and Laurie Sheldon, Zhu Xuewen, Brian Judd, Mrs Tan Kin Ou, Ben Lovett, Zhang Ren, Ali Garman and Wei Enhai.	China Caves Project Trail To Tanjiawan Hong Chi Ba Area On our first afternoon in Hong Chi Ba in 1996, we decided to go to Tanjiawan, to inspect sites which Jack Sheldon had predicted from map study could yield caves. The advantage of this was that we would be driving through the whole area and everyone would get a chance to appraise it. Jack didn't know I'd already been to caves in Tanjiawan with Andy Eavis in 1995. To be honest I didn't know either, because we didn't have maps then!
		We stopped on the way to look at potentially interesting sites, but found most of those investigated to be blocked by mud or vegetation. Despite this the initial impression was extremely favourable, because there were fragments of large fossil caves and so many places to look.
	We passed people tending bee hives and sheep. There are far fewer people at this altitude than in the valleys lower down. The area has a distinctly alpine feel, with spectacular scenery and beautiful shrubs and plants. The mountains were largely deforested during Mao's 'Great Leap Forward', but trees and shrubs are growing back and being planted to stop erosion. This has had two effects detrimental to cavers. First, increased erosion washed huge quantities of mud and vegetation into the caves. Second, the loss of primary tree cover has produced a dense 'secondary jungle', which is extremely difficult to penetrate.
		The valley floors and sides are meadows for the grazing of sheep and a few horses. During the summer it is cooler and wetter than most parts of Sichuan Province, where temperatures can reach more than 40ºC.

On arrival in Tanjiawan the coordinates were loaded into a GPS receiver and the cave Jack had predicted, where three streams sink, was located with minimal difficulty. I realised by then that I'd already been to this cave in 1995! I climbed into the sink only to find it blocked by large quantities of washed in vegetation. Meanwhile the rest of the team had stumbled on a much more promising site with the help of some local farmers. This cave, Xiaoshui Dong (Sinking Cave) emitted a very strong draught and there was a large 10m entrance pitch.

Zhang Ren seems to have a premonition about the GPS receiver Jack is holding...

Xiaoshui Dong

Trail To Tanjiawan