Yincuixia

Shady Green Gorge


Useful Information

Location: Jiuxiang village, 70 km from Kunming, 47 km from Yiliang. Kunming Prefecture.
()
Open:  
Fee:  
Classification: KarstCollapsed Cave, roofless cave
Light: n/a
Dimension: L=600m
Guided tours:  
Photography:  
Accessibility:  
Bibliography:  
Address:  
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


Description

Yincuixia (Shady Green Gorge) is a 600 m long gorge with a river of deep green colour. The gorge is used for motorboat trips with tourists. The special thing with this gorge is the fact that it is a karst feature. It is a so called cave ruin or roofless cave.

Obviously a roofless cave is a sort of paradox, as the definition of a cave requires the existence of a roof. If it is roofless, it is not a cave. This term is used to describe the formation of a gorge, which formed underground as a cave. As the cave became bigger and the roof thinner, the roof started to collapse. The karst windows were subject to intense erosion and grew fast, the roof shrank until it became a series of natural bridges and at the end those collapsed too. The result is a gorge with former cave walls, often - like in this case - with stalactites and other speleothems.

This valley is called Lovers' valley by the native Yi people.