Trip Report - China Karst Trip – October 06

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Trip Report - China Karst Trip – October 06


We just returned from our latest SW China Karst trip, which was a definite success.  We had a great group of travelers:
 
Dwight Deal
Mary Deal
Zelda Bailey (ex NPS-NCKRI)
Deborah Bolcko (Nurse, outdoorist, fiber arts)
Rich Breisch (Birder and caver, GypCap and much more)
Arthur Clarke (Tasmania-Cave Biologist)
Sid Covington (NPS geologist)
Larry Flemming (Alaska and international caver)
Ron and Diannia Kerbo (NPS Cave Specialist)
Eve Kuniansky (USGS-Georgia karst hydrologist)
Paul and Marjorie Richter (Ret UWVa Prof)
Barbara Schaefer (Hawaii caver)
John and Elaine Taylor (IOCAlum cavers)
Patrick Tucci (USGS hydrologist)
David Worthington (Caver from Wyoming)

The trip was shorter and more focused than the one in 2004.  After an introductory two days in Hong Kong, we focused on Guilin (4 nights) and Yangshuo (5 nights).

Arthur Clarke, a Tasmanian cave biologist was with us for the first week and then left to join up with the Brit China Caves Project expedition in Hubei.  Arthur provided a biological dimension to our experiences, as well as regaling us with his recent explorations in the deep caves of western Guanxi.

I introduced our group to Chinese karst terminology and Chinese ideas about the origins of caves and karst as we visited several caves in the Guilin area – Seven-Star Cave, Chuanshan Yan (Punching-through Hill Cave), and Guan Yan (Crown Cave, the resurgence of the 7km-long Guanyan river system).

In Seven-Star Cave we traversed the well-decorated dry portion of a major underground river system which you can think of as a large and improved Mammoth Cave experience.  In Chuanshan Yan we were introduced to the foot-cave complexes (the complex inflow-outflow systems developed in the base of the karst towers as the water table seasonally rises and falls).  Although not entirely unique to China, foot-cave complexes are better developed in the Guilin-Yangshuo area than in the rest of the world.  They have strongly influenced how the Chinese think about the origins of karst.  Chuanshan Yan is also a beautiful cave discovered in 1979 during excavations to create bomb shelters in case the Russians attacked.  It was immediately developed for tourism and therefore escaped centuries of visitation and graffiti.  We also climbed up to Moon Cave, a 30m-long remnant of a 10m-diameter cave passage that “punches through” the hill (also known as “penetrating hill” or “tunnel hill”)
 for an outstanding view of Guilin to the northwest and the complex tower karst to the south and southwest.

Evening performances and other cultural events were included as part of the trip core and participants were given the option to join Mary Deal for additional local cultural side trips when they wanted a change in pace.

Spectacular Guan Yan (according to the Guinnis Book of Records) offers more ways to see a tourist cave than any other show cave –electric carts, elevators, trains, boats, a “roller coaster”, and the bobsled-on-rails (which was unfortunately not operational the day we were there) of the An Ji Mechanical Slide.  You can also walk, swim, or be carried by two porters in a sedan chair through parts of the cave. 

After lunch in a rural café, we explored the spectacular highland karst area over the underground river system, visiting scenic polje lakes before returning to Guilin for dinner.

Prof. Yuan welcomed us at the Karst Research Institute and Museum in Guilin.  Ron Kerbo presented a lecture to the staff and students at the Institute on cave management policies in the U.S., then Prof. Yuan summarized the work of the Institute and we visited the renown karst museum.  After lunch in a restaurant specializing in roast goose, two staff members from the Institute accompanied us down the narrow “improved” rural road to Nanxu, the Nanxu Arch, and the insurgence to the Guanyan system.

We moved from Guilin to a new base in Yangshuo via boat on the Li River, traversing some of the most spectacular parts of China’s tower karst.  We went by the spot where the photo for the 20-RMB (Yuan) note (Chinese currency) was made commemorating the Li River karst scenery. Yangshuo is a town that caters to both Chinese and foreign tourists and is intimately nestled between karst towers. Local accommodations, shops, cafes, and services are amazingly diverse.  

Most of the group toured Lotus Cave, Shuiyanshan Cave, Silver Cave, and Fengyu Cave (named for the fish found in the cave stream).  Shuiyanshan (literally Water Cave Hill) contains some interesting caves.  There are five levels of foot caves.  The highest is 65m above the valley floor and contains Middle-Late Pleistocene Ailuropoda – Stegodon [giant panda – ancestral elephant] fauna.  There is also a significant cave river flowing through the hill and several sizeable breakdown rooms have grown upward through multiple levels of foot caves.  There are just enough white electric lights strung though it for a “commercial” tour, so it is almost a “wild” cave but with enough illumination so you can appreciate the large spaces of the river passages and big breakdown rooms. 

An additional attraction is a mud bath that you can wallow in, if so inclined.  David Worthington and Rich Breisch did, emulating many young Chinese tourists (and their girlfriends) who seem to quite enjoy groping in the slimy mud!  (That is NOT to imply that Rich and David engaged in the groping part – they just appeared to relish getting muddy in a REAL cave.  There are several other “Water Caves” in the area that cater to this activity, and some of our group also visited Buddha Water Cave, reportedly offering better mudding.

We visited local markets in villages south of Yangshuo, and then spent the last two days north of Guilin in the minority area around the Dragon’s Spine rice terraces.  There, local Yao and Zhuang minority people have sculpted amazing terraces, farming up to 3,000 feet of steep mountain slopes.  The minority Yao and Zhuang mountain farmland villages provided a relaxing and contrasting ending to the trip

More as an aside, we stopped en route at the major wholesale mineral market in Guilin (which offered a range from small specimens to huge museum-quality slabs that would be worth hundreds of thousand of dollars on the US market).  Very interesting!

Five of our group went on the trip extension to Beijing to climb the Great Wall and visit other attractions before returning to the states.

We plan to offer another trip in October, 2007.  As the group size will be limited, interested individuals should contact us soon.

DirtDoc