Zhijin Cave Scenic Spot

Zhijin Cave Scenic Spot is located in Zhijin County, Guizhou Province. The spot has four parts: Zhijin Old Town, Zhijin Cave, Jiehe Gorge and Hongjia Ferry among which the Zhijin Cave is the most attractive and famous.

Zhijin Cave is also called Daji Cave (Hit Rooster Cave). Historically, young Miao boys and girls often played shuttlecock here, hence the Daji Cave name. Its enormous area spans 307 square kilometers (about 118.5 square miles), with a length of 12.1 kilometers (about 7.52 miles) and a width of 175 meters (about 0.11 miles). Because of the huge bizarre stalactite in the Zhijin Cave, it is called the 'Museum of Karsts'. In this cave are more than forty kinds of karst formations, like those in caves in other parts of the world. The Zhijin Cave, which boasts many unique features, is called 'King of Caves'. For example, 350,000 square meters (about 3,767,491 square feet) of the cave have been explored. Halls in the cave are extremely long and wide. One seldom sees so many varieties and such high-grade karst accumulations, such as the rare curlstone (a kind of stone). The cave feels like a huge underground palace. Here a variety of stones and rock -- prehnite, bloodstone, and curlstone - have formed stalagmites, stone flowers, drums, pillars, and so on. Karst formations create different scenes such as the following:
 

Owing to the sunshine from the mouth of this cave, moss grows in the hall. At the top of the hall is a circular ventilated opening through which sunshine penetrates to the bottom of the hall. Under the sunlight, remaining beads around the opening glisten tremulously like myriads of crystal coins falling from heaven.
 

At an early period in history enormous rocks collapsed from the summit and then accumulated into a mountain now called Mt. Longevity (Mt. Wanshou Shan). Later, karst accumulations covered the mountain. Beside Mt. Longevity the crimson bloodstone glitters like a peacock spreading its tail to display his fine feathers.

After seeing the natural cave wonders, you can visit the local minority villages of Buyi, Miao and Yi ethnic minorities.