Zhangjiajie's Huanglong Cave: A Weather-Proof Wonder Insured for 100 Million RMB – A Maze-Like Exploration
Everyone is familiar with Zhangjiajie. The popularity of the movie 'Avatar' in those days made countless people yearn for the beautiful mountains and waters. When visiting Zhangjiajie, the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and Tianmen Mountain are must-visit attractions for many tourists. However, due to the fact that Zhangjiajie is often shrouded in mist, seeing beautiful scenery often depends on luck. For example, Duck's last trip to Zhangjiajie was accompanied by wind and rain, and he basically didn't see any scenery.
In fact, there is a scenic area in Zhangjiajie that is completely unaffected by the weather, that is 'Huanglong Cave'. Huanglong Cave has almost covered the entire content of 'Cave Studies' in terms of scale, content, and beauty. It is the 'all-rounder' among the world's caves.
Legend has it that during the Qing Dynasty in the 19th year of Qianlong's reign, there was a hundred-day drought, and famous monk He Junru led his disciples into the cave to pray for rain, and all of them perished. Before he died, He Lao Si left a sentence: ‘Dry land is a good field, don’t dig Huanglongquan.’ As a result, Huanglong Cave was never paid attention to. Until 1983, local villagers Mao Jinchu organized nine militiamen and, after countless difficulties, finally confirmed the truth of this world-famous cave spectacle.
The landmark attraction of Huanglong Cave is this ‘guiding needle’ that is 20 meters long, with thick ends and a narrow center, and the narrowest part is only 10 centimeters in diameter. Cave experts calculate that it may take at least 200,000 years to grow to this height today.
In 1998, to strengthen the protection of this ‘treasure of the cave’, Huanglong Cave insured the needle for 100 million RMB, creating a precedent for human investment in the protection of resource assets, which shocked the domestic and international tourism, insurance and news circles.
‘If you don’t visit Huanglong Cave, you’ve wasted your trip to all the caves,’ Huanglong Cave has two dry caves and two water caves, the entire cave looks like an ancient tree with twisted roots and branches, with caves within caves, caves within caves, and caves within mountains. Tourists are led by a unified guide within the scenic area, called ‘Aimei’, in different time slots to visit, and a tour takes about 2.5 hours.
To better divert the flow, each ‘Aimei’ leads a different route, because the terrain inside the cave is very complex, it is necessary to recognize your own ‘Aimei’, follow the explanation, because it is impossible to discover the secrets by yourself, if you get lost, you may not be able to get out, Huanglong Cave is truly a ‘maze’!
'Maze' is a signature attraction of the world’s ‘all-rounder’ Huanglong Cave, located in the lowest branch of the cave. ‘Dragon King’s Throne’ is located in the center, with countless stalactites and stalagmites, surrounded by pillars and rocks. In addition, there is a ‘sound stone’ inside the cave. There is a waterfall inside the cave, with a height of more than 50 meters. There are both water and mountains inside the cave, which is rare among domestic caves.
The entire tour is in the cave, unaffected by the outside weather, so it can be seen in beautiful scenery all year round, and it is the only one in Zhangjiajie that doesn't need to 'bet on luck', ‘insured for 100 million RMB', it is also known as a 'maze', it attracts a large number of visitors.
