天一巷景区

Tianyi Lane - Ox Nose Castle


Useful Information

Location: 218 Sheng Dao, Xinning County, Shaoyang, Hunan, China, 422701.
(26.353440, 110.805281)
Open: All year daily 8-17.
[2014]
Fee: Adults CNY 50.
[2014]
Classification: GorgeGorge SpeleologyFracture Cave
Light: n/a
Dimension: L=238.8 m, H=120 m, W=0.8 m.
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:  
Address: Tianyi Lane, Xinning County of Shaoyang City, Hunan Province.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

2004 renamed Tianyi Lane Scenic Spot.

Description

天一巷景区 (Tianyi Lane) is a straight crack, 80 cm wide, enough for one walking person. It is absolutely straight, 238 m long with almost vertical 120 m high walls. The sun shines into the crack once a day, then the crack is brightly illuminated. The rest of the day the crack is dark, humid and cool.

The rocks around Tianyi Lane are crystalline rocks, very hard and resisting erosion quite well. There is no karstification and no caves, the forms of the rocks are typical for their chemistry. Huge pillars and beehive structures can be found, the surfaces are smooth and rounded. There is some collapse and talus around the foot of the impressive rocks. The landscape is really impressive and a famous tourist destination.

The big Ox Nose Castle rock was cut into two pieces by tectonic forces. The result is a cleft running almost vertical through the rock, which was widened by the divergent forces. The two pieces still tend to move apart, because erosion works on the base of the solitary rock and gravity pulls at the massive rock. The result is a widened fracture, with almost planar walls, about 80 cm apart. A trail was built at the floor of the crack. As the floor ascends almost continually from the beginning to the end it is actually a very long staircase. There is one way traffic upwards, because it's quite difficult to pass other people in a space of only 80 cm. For the same reason it's not possible to take over, and if there are other visitors it's not possible to spend much time, because this would create a traffic jam.

While this is a narrow gorge or slot canyon by morphology, we classified it as a fracture cave after its geology. The same geological process may create open gorges or closed caves, so use the term for bor both, although this is strictly speaking not a cave. There are at least three such spectacular crack in the area, but this is the most spectacular and most famous. The scenic spot was originally named Ox Nose Castle, because of the numerous ox nose shaped holes in the cliff face. In 2004, it was re-named after its most popular and impressive feature, the straight crack, into Tianyi Lane Scenic Spot.