Yinshui Cave

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2011-11-30

Entrance of the Yinshui Cave Geopark

Hubei Tongshan Yinshui Cave Geopark is located in Dafan town, Tongshan county, the nuclear power base of Hubei province. Yinshui Cave is the first geopark in the province, with a length of 5,158 meters. The cave has a grand size and looks majestic. It averages 30 meters high and 25 meters wide. Stalactites stand in great numbers in the cave, resembling realistic figures and articles.

Yinshui Cave contains rich underground brooks and karst landforms, offering important evidence tourism development and scientific research.

Yinshui Cave gets its name from two streams hidden in the cave. Caves are normal in mountains but rare in river ways.

Yinshui Cave gets its name from two streams hidden in the cave.

Compared with existing subterranean rivers in the country, Yinshui Cave boasts modern underground stream and ancient riverway scenes. It is a notch above others in landscape quality and distributions. Liaoning Benxi Water Tunnel, Guizhou Anshun Dragon Palace, Guangxi Guilin Guanyan Cave, Lipu Fengyu Cave, and Chongqing Zhangguan Water Cave, have few underground river scenes. The scenes are largely found in the upper layer ancient channels of the underground rivers.

Southwest China’s Guangxi province has a number of high-grade underground river ways with multiple sceneries, similar to Yinshui Cave. They include Xiaohe Liyan Water Cave near Guanyan, Pingguo Longma Cave, and Liucheng Longzhai Water Cave in Guangxi, but these are not developed yet.

Yinshui Cave contains rich underground brooks and karst landforms.

Stalactites stand in great numbers in the cave.

Yinshui Cave has pure stalactites, with few air-slaked. It has a large number of vividly modeled sculptures, such as the “carp leaping through the dragon’s gate”, "divine boot falling from heaven”, “jade hare watches peaches”, “ancient bell in Hanshan Temple”, “stone lotus born in water”, “swan’s kiss”, “gold and silver waterfalls”, “immortal’s farmland”, “magical pen of Ma Liang”, “flying fox of snow mountain”, “lighting flashes and thunder rumbles”, and “Eight Immortals see a visitor out.”

Yinshui Cave sights integrate the aesthetic beauty of nature in form, dynamics, color, sound and obscurity.

Tourists may visit the cave in a unique way by going on a yacht to experience the mysterious cave and listen to the billows of the underground rivers. They may also take railcars to learn about the distinctive charms of the swiftly changing scenes in the cave. They can also go on foot to personally touch the magical works of nature.

Yinshui Cave boasts modern underground stream and ancient riverway scenes. (photo from nipic.com)