波月洞

Boyue Cave - Boyuedon - Poyue Cave - Powol-dong

Useful Information

photography — Boyue Cave, China. Public Domain.

Location:	Lengshuijiang City. 2.5 km from city center. (27.706336, 111.451992)
Open:	All year daily 8:30-17. Currently Covid-19 restrictions require online booking. Post-pandemic Aftermath [2022]
Fee:	Adults CNY 60. [2022]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System Coloured Light
Dimension:	L=1,800 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Boyue Cave, Lengshuijiang, Loudi, Hunan 417503.
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

APR-1982	location for the shenmo television series Journey to the West.
MAY-1983	location for the shenmo television series Journey to the West.

Description

波月洞 (Boyue Cave) is a huge cavern with fine speleothems. The cave system has three levels and a rather long tourist path of 1.8 km. While it is rather huge and has fine speleothems, it actually has no exceptional features, except the fact that it was used as a film set. As a result they never tire telling about this and even have theme parties and special events on this topic. Like always in China, the cave is part of a Scenic Spot, and during the last years they used all available money to add, what they call infrastructure. Actually they have six restaurants, a hotel, and even an open air karaoke bar. In other words 90 % of the scenic spot are not cave and karst related.

The cave has some local fame, as a shooting location for the 1986 shenmo tv series Journey to the West. The fight scenes in the 白骨洞 (Cavern of White Bone Demon) were filmed here. Also, the Seat of the Monkey King in 水帘洞 (Water Curtain Cave). The set for the Monkey Seat is still in the cave and a highlight of the tour. Also, numerous formations are named after scenes from the book.

The story is an ancient Chinese legend and has been used for movies and tv uncountable times. Most of those productions never leave China, but there are also some which are internationally famous. The monkey king seems to be a metaphor for the annoying and arrogant human, while the humans in the story are actually godly or supernatural entities. The most popular version of the legend is the Chinese novel 西遊記 (Journey to the West), published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. And there are four sections in the book, where the "Boyue Cave in Wanzi Mountain" is mentioned.