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Top 8 Karst Caves in China

Written by Sally Guo Updated Jun. 28, 2021

China has the largest areas of karst landscape with more than 160 tourist caves. Here are the most beautiful and representative caves in China and some cave photography tips.

1. Reed Flute Cave

The Reed Flute Cave is located northwest of Guilin. It is a scenic spot mainly offering karst cave and pastoral scenery landscape for visitors to sightsee and appreciate. There are plenty of stalagmites, stalactites, peristyles, stone curtains, and stone flowers in different shapes, composing the landscape of Morning Glow at the Lion Mountain, the Red Curtain, the Panlong Pagoda, the old-growth forest, the Crystal Palace, Mountain of Flowers and Fruits and many other sceneries.

All the landscapes form the fairyland, enjoying the reputation of the Art Palace of Nature. Also, the fantastic nature makes a good place for the shutterbugs to record the beautiful landscape. In addition to the karst landscape in the cave, visitors can also see the frescos dating from the Tang Dynasty. In the Reef Flute Cave scenic spot, there are restaurants, tea houses, waterside pavilions, lakes, curved bridges, and tourism boats for visitors.

2. Zhijin Cave

Zhijin Cave discovered in 1980, is located 120 kilometers from Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou. The cave extending for 6.6 kilometers is one of the most beautiful caves in China. There are more than 120 different crystalline formations in the cave’s interior along with stalactites. Silver Rain Tree is a 17-meter tall and rare flower-like transparent crystal.

In this 3 layers cave, there are more than 40 types of Karst limestone formations. 47 Halls and 150 attractions dot this 30, 000 square kilometers cave. It measures 150 meters at its highest and 173 at its widest and the average height of it is 50 meters.

3. Yellow Dragon Cave

Yellow Dragon Cave is located in the Wulingyuan scenic spot, the core scenic spot in Zhangjiajie City in Hunan. It is one of the most beautiful karst caves in China. The karst cave consists of a stereoscopic karst cave structure, a broad dragon temple hall, tens of thousands of stalagmites, a tall in-karst cave waterfall, and a touring route on both water and land. In the karst cave, visitors can see a large number of karst caves and rivers located in the big Huanglong Karst Cave.

The Stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, rock flowers, stone curtain, helictite, stone, stone pearls, and stone corals congealed of the calcareous solution can be seen all the way in the karst cave, making it seem to be a ‘demon palace’ under the ground. Bruinen River, Loess Plateau, Fairy Waterfalls, Labyrinth, Sky Column Street, Mountain of Flowers and Fruits, and some other wonderful spectacles can be seen in the karst cave and they are suitable for taking photos from different angles.

4. Benxi Water Cave

Benxi Water Tunnel is located in the Benxi City of Liaoning Province. It consists of six scenic spots Water Cave, Hot Spring Temple, Tang Furrow, Guanmen Hill, Tiesha, and the Hill behind the Temple, covering an area of 44.72 square kilometers. Benxi water tunnel is a large water-filling cavity formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Accumulated over a long period, it gradually developed into today's tunnel. This kind of dissolution is still continuing.

Visitors can see different landscapes in the six different scenic spots. The stalactites like corn, jade elephant, and Snow Mountain in the water cave; the ancient well, vauclusian spring and pools in the drought cave; the “first drift in Northeast of China” gives visitors an exciting drift journey; the performance of domesticate crocodile in the Crocodile Garden; the geological relic and specimen in the Benxi Geological Museum and the birthplace of Taoism in northeast China, Tiesha Hill scenic spot.

5. Tenglong Cave

Tenglong Cave is 6 kilometers from Lichuan city. It is one of China’s biggest caves. The height of the cave entrance is about 74 meters and its weight is 65 meters. Over 300 caves are distributed on 5 floors in Tenglong Cave. Hills, water, caves, and stone forests make up a marvelous scene. It is famous for its grand, elegant, odd, and pretty scenery. The main cave is 52.8 kilometers long. There are 5 peaks, more than 10 falls, and 10 halls in the cave. The highest fall reaches 23 meters. Caves hide in hills and hills hide in caves. The temperature in the cave is about 15 centigrade degrees all year long.

6. Guizhou Dragon Palace

Guizhou Dragon Palace is located in the south suburb of Anshun City, Guizhou. It is the neighbor of the Huangguoshu waterfalls. The Dragon Palace covers an area of 60 square meters, and is divided into four scenic spots containing the center of the scenic spot, Xuan Pond, Oilseed Rape Lake, and the Immortal Bamboos. Visitors can see waterfalls, needle karst, streams, and stone forest in the cave.

Guizhou Dragon Palace is praised as the Great Miracle of the Big Nature. It is one of the most essential golden scenic spots in Guizhou Province. The scenic spot owns the deepest and the most beautiful water karst cave and multi-type karst landscapes, the biggest karst cave family hall for worshipping the Buddha, the biggest waterfall in the cave, and the most and the most concentrated water and drought karst cave.

7. Furong Karst Cave

Furong Karst Cave (Lotus Karst Cave) is located in Wulong County in Chongqing. Chongqing is known as the City of Hills in China. Furong Karst Cave is a large-scale limestone cave formed in the quaternary Pleistocene, developing in dolomite limestone in the ancient Cambrian system. It covers an area of 37,000 square meters. The grandest sight is the Brilliant Hall is 1,000 square meters. The maximum static and visitor capacity is 185,000 people, enjoying the reputation of one of the World's Three Caves.

The main attractions in the cave are the Golden Halls, the Leifeng Pagoda, the Jade Chopstick Prop up the Sky, the Flowers in the Jade Forest, the Crystal Flowers, the One Thousand Kiss, the Animal Kingdom, the Dragon Palace under the Sea, the Giant-screen Waterfall, the Pearls in the Stone Field and so on. Walking in the cave makes the person feel a magical creature of nature

8. Xueyu Karst Cave

Xueyu Karst Cave (Snow Jade Cave) is also located in the City of Hills, Chongqing. It is the boutique of the karst cave group of Longhe scenic spot and is the youngest karst cave among the developed caves in China. 80% of the stalactites in the cave are white like snow and pure like jade. So the cave is named Snow Jade Karst Cave by Professor Zhu Xuewen, the Chairman of the Karst Cave Association

There are three worlds seen in the cave. The first one is the rare-seen “snow world” in the cave because the stalactites are white like snow. The second one is the rare fast-growing “rosebud” of the cave in the world. The third one is the rare landscape in the cave is incredible. Also, there are four world’s “most” in the cave waiting for the visitors to find out. Recommended Chongqing Tour

Tips for Taking Photos in the Karst Cave

1. It is better to get everything ready in advance before shooting in the karst cave. The single-lens reflex camera with photometry inside is the best choice. To choose the caliber of the lens, the bigger means better. If the zoom lens with wide-angle is available, you have got the best condition. Because the light in the cave is dim, an electric torch is useful for providing lighting in order to shoot a satisfying photo.

2. In general, there is colorful decorated light in the cave. If the lens is toward the light, the picture will be very dark or will be black. So take care to avoid light directly opposite the lens when shooting and take advantage of the lens hood.

3. It is right the place in the cave to use the flash lamp because the rays of light are dim. If the condition permits, please take as much as possible and match with the Synchronous Sensor. The humidity in the karst cave is high, with the addition of there is absolute temperature difference between inside and outside the cave, when the camera is taken into the cave, the lens will be covered with a layer of water vapor. The best way to prevent this is to seal the camera with a plastic bag before getting into the cave and take it out after 30 minutes.

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