奇风洞

Qifeng Cave

Useful Information

Location:	(24.815560, 103.325260)
Open:
Fee:
Classification:	Intermittent Spring
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Qifeng Cave.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2007	inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Description

奇风洞 (Qí fēng dòng, Qifeng Cave, Strange Wind Cave) is named after a strange phenomenon. From August to November, gales lasting two to three minutes sweep out of the cave every 30 minutes. This seems to be caused by the cave river which forms an underground intermittent spring. A siphon which fills with water and then pulls the water from a basin also causes the air current. Such intermittent springs are very rare, and with the wind effect it is unique.

There seems to be some disagreement about the location of this cave though. Some say it's inside the stone forest, which is wrong, others say its 5 km to the northwest, but that's actually Zhiyun Cave. Even the name is difficult, as it is also named 石林奇风洞 (Stone Forest Wind Tunnel), despite not being part of the stone forest. Actually we were not able to find the location as neither Google, OpenStreetMap, nor Baidu actually know where it is located. And last but not least it's not a cave, it's an intermittent spring.