Zhijingdong Cave Geopark

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Overview

Zhijindong Cave Geopark takes Zhijindong Cave as the main body, including Zhijin Cave Scenic Area, Zhijin Ancient City, Hongjiadu Plateau Pinghu Scenic Area, and Luo-jie River Scenic Area, with a total area of 307 square kilometers.

Zhijingdong Cave Geopark not only has high tourism and aesthetic value, but also has high scientific value for the study of ancient geography and palaeometeorology in China.

There are many ethnic minorities such as Miao, Yi, Gelao and Buyi people living in the surrounding area of Zhijin Cave. It retains the ethnic minority culture such as the Miao’s “Tiaohua Festival” and the Yi “Torch Festival”, as well as the national intangible cultural heritage. The Miao people’s “three-hole flute”, “batik” and “horsetail embroidery”.

In 1988, it was listed as one of the second batch of national key scenic spots by the State Council

In December 1991, it was selected as one of the top 40 tourist attractions in China by the National Tourism Administration

On September 19, 2015, at the 4th Asia-Pacific Global Geopark Conference held in Japan, Zhijin Cave was officially approved as a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Location

Zhijindong National Geopark covers an area of 170 square kilometers with an altitude of 900-1670m. It is located in a Miao village about 23 kilometers northeast of Guanzhai Township of Zhijin County, at the south bank of Liuchong River, one of the headstreams of the Wujiang River.

It is 120 kilometers away from the provincial capital of Guiyang, 142 kilometers away from Bijie City in the north, and 99 kilometers away from Anshun City in the south.

In its south, there are Huangguoshu Waterfall, Anshun Dragon Palace and Puding Chuandong Paleolithic site and Maling River Canyon; In its east, there is Hongfeng Lake and Baihua Lake; In its north, there is the Baili Rhododendron Scenic Area; On its west, there are Caohai Nature Reserve and other major natural scenery and nature reserves of Guizhou

Climate

Zhijindong National Geopark has a subtropical humid monsoon climate, with an average temperature of 14.1℃, annual sunshine of 1117 hours, and an average annual rainfall of 1400-1500 mm. There is no severe cold in winter, no intense heat in summer, long frost-free period and abundant rainfall.

Geographical environment

Zhijingdong Cave Geopark is a subtropical humid monsoon climate area, located on the south bank of the gorge in the upper reaches of the Wujiang River in China.

Affected by neotectonic movement, the block is uplifted and the river cuts down and corrodes the rock mass and forms a high-level dry cave. The geological formation is about 500,000 years, and it has experienced the late Early Pleistocene to the Mid-Late Cene.

Due to the complex and changeable geological structure, the cave has the characteristics of multi-pattern, multi-stage, and multi-type fully developed.

Features

Zhijingdong Cave Geopark is a typical karst landform, with a carbonate content of more than 90%, including most of the karst geological relics. It can be called a natural karst museum.

Due to the complex and changeable geological structure, the cave has the characteristics of multi-pattern, multi-stage, and multi-type fully developed

Zhijin Cave is currently the cave with the highest density of cave halls, the highest density of stalactites, the richest types, and the most rare forms in the world.

The initial survey of the whole cave is 13.5 kilometers long, the widest hall is 173 meters, the vertical height is mostly 50-60 meters, and the vertical highest is 150 meters. The total area is more than 700,000 square meters, the height of the accumulation is about 40 meters on average, and the highest accumulation is 70 meters.

The cave has wide open space, undulating terrain, various accumulations and crystals in more than 120 forms, which is also a known world record.

Among them, there is a shrub-like curly stone growing on stalactites, in the form of a thin strip. Its center is a hollow pipe for sealing water. The wall of the pipe is very thin and the whole body is transparent. It seems that it is not restricted by gravity and automatically avoids obstacles. The obstruction, freely curling into space. This kind of curly stone is extremely rare, so it is regarded as a treasure in lava.

Zhijingdong Cave Geopark Data

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How to get to there

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In the past, there were very few tourists in Zhijin Cave. The main reason was that the rugged mountain roads hindered communication with the outside world, causing many visitors to abandon their trips for this site. Now with the completion of the newly constructed roads and railways, the travel time to here has been greatly shortened, and the comfort level of getting here by train or car has also been greatly improved.

By Bus

Qian-zhi Expressway, as a repeating section of “five verticals” and “three horizontals” of Guizhou expressway network, starts at Qianxi region and ends at Qimo Township of Zhijin County, with a total length of 35.4 kilometers which opened up the last distance into the Zhijin Cave, making visiting this wonderful cave no longer like the previous hardships

From Huangguoshu Scenic Area in Anshun to Zhijindong Geopark, it is about 100 kilometers, and it takes about 2 hours’s drive by bus

By train

From 2013, the special train “Zhijindong” from Guiyang to Zhijin was added. The trains were K9475, K9476, K9477 and K9478 respectively. It only takes 2 and a half hours to reach Zhijindong National Geopark from Guiyang.

The departure time of the train from Guiyang is 8:47 in the morning and the latest is 15:12 in the afternoon. It passes through Anshun and the fastest arrival time is 2 hours and 38 minutes. Visitors to Zhijin Cave can take the special train that departs from Guiyang in the morning. After visiting the scenic area of Zhijin Cave, take the 18:29 evening train to return. After the special train is opened, it will closely link Guiyang, Anshun Huangguoshu and Zhijindong scenic spots

There are buses that departs from Zhijin Railway Station to Zhijindong Town. Although the bus station of Zhijindong Town is still about 2km away from the Zhijindong Cave GEOpark, however, the local minibus quickly shuttles here, which makes the last 2 kilometers are seamlessly connected