Caverns and Caves in Guizhou
The unique karst landforms have earned Guizhou such honors as the "Home to Karst Caves" and a "Kingdom of Cave Maze". There is also a saying that one does not need to visit any other karst caves after a tour of Guizhou. Guizhou has two-thirds of the dozens of caves more than 10 kilometers long in the country. There is a large number of karst caves in various forms in the province, and their value for sightseeing is the highest in the country. The most representative caves include Zhijin Cave, Getu River Caves, Shuanghe Cave, Dragon Palace Cave of Anshun, and Jiulong Cave of Tongren.
The Zhijin Cave, one of China's six most beautiful tourist caves, is located in Guanzhai Miao Ethnic Township, Zhijin County, Guizhou Province. The cave is 12.1 kilometers long and 175 meters wide at the widest point, with a relative height difference of more than 150 meters. It is spacious with upper, middle and lower tiers. More than 40 kinds of cave deposits can be found here, including stalagmites, stone pillars, clints, and cave flags, presenting a kaleidoscopic karst landscape that is awe-inspiring and breathtaking.
The world's largest cave chamber, the Miao Room, is located on the Getu River in Ziyun Miao and Bouyei Autonomous County of Guizhou. According to the results of British scientists' precise measurement in 2014, the Miao Room has a volume of 19.78 million cubic meters and an area of 116,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of 12 football pitches.
The Shuanghe Cave, located in Wenquan Town, Suiyang County, Zunyi City, is the largest karst cave in China, hailed as the "Karst Cave Museum" and the "Gateway to the Earth's Core". It is a maze of broken tunnels that run deep into the earth's crust in all directions. In March 2019, the results of the 21st international joint scientific expedition into the Shuanghe Cave were unveiled. According to the results, the Shuanghe Cave has a length of 257.4 kilometers, making it the longest cave in Asia and the fifth longest in the world. In that cave, the world's cave experts found underground terrace, cave waterfalls, helictites, gypsum flowers and other geological wonders, as well as a large number of fossils and living creatures, which are valuable for the geological and biological studies on the cave.
貴州洞天
奇特的喀斯特地貌,成就了貴州“溶洞之鄉”“洞府迷宮王國”的美稱,民間有“貴州歸來不看洞”的說法。中國經過考察探險發現的幾十個長度超過10千米的溶洞中,貴州就占了三分之二之多。貴州的溶洞數量眾多、形式多樣,觀賞度在全國居首。其中,具有代表性的溶洞景區有織金洞、格凸河溶洞群、雙河洞、安順龍宮、銅仁九龍洞等。
織金洞被評為“中國最美六大旅游洞穴”之首,位于貴州省織金縣官寨苗族鄉,洞長12.1千米,最寬處175米,相對高差150多米,空間寬闊,有上、中、下三層,洞中遍布石筍、石柱、石芽、石旗等40多種洞穴堆積物,形成千姿百態的巖溶景觀,令人心魄震驚,嘆為觀止。
世界最大洞廳--紫云苗廳位于貴州紫云自治縣格凸河,2014年英國科學家精密測出苗廳體積達到1978萬立方米,面積為11.6萬平方米,相當于12個足球場。
國家地質公園雙河洞位于遵義市綏陽縣溫泉鎮,是中國最大的溶洞群,被譽為“喀斯特天然洞穴博物館”“中國地心之門”。雙河洞穴系宛如迷宮、支離破碎的洞道,從各個方向深入地殼。2019年3月,第21次雙河洞國際聯合科考成果發布,雙河洞以257.4千米的長度成為亞洲第一長洞,世界第五長洞。世界洞穴專家在洞內發現了地下梯田、洞穴瀑布、卷曲石、石膏晶花等地質奇跡和大量洞穴生物化石、洞穴活體生物等,為洞穴地質、生物研究提供了豐富的極有價值的資料。
