Baixiangdong

White Elephant Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Diehongqiao (Overlapping Rainbow Bridge), 45 km from Yiling. Kunming Prefecture. (25.066725, 103.383557)
Open:
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Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System Coloured Light
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Address:	Baixiangdong, Tel: +86-, Fax: +86-,
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

Baixiangdong (White Elephant Cave) has a huge hall called the Lion's Hall. The chamber is one of the biggest caverns in China, named after a huge stalagmite formation at the entrance, which looks like a sitting lion from inside the chamber. Inside the 200 m wide and 10,000m² big chamber are a stage and a subterranean ballroom of 2,000 m².

The cavern is regularly used for concerts, which is obviously a good way to promote the caves. There are classical concerts with the Kunming Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, there is a rock exhibition and a fossil exhibition in this chamber.

The next hall is called Fairy Tale Palace. Unlike the Lion's Hall this one is full of speleothems. Typical for China is the coloured light.

Although the tourist part is dry, there is a cave river called Maitian River which can be heard during the tour. Outside the cave is a 200 m high natural bridge right above the cave.