Jiulongdong

Nine-Dragon Caves

Useful Information

Location:	Jiulongdong NP. 17 km southeast of Tongren City in Guizhou Province. There are boats from the West Gate Bridge in Tongren.
Open:
Fee:
Classification:	Karst cave Dragon Cave
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	L=3,200 m.
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Jiulongdong.
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History

Description

Jiulong Cave (Nine-Dragon Cave) is located inside Guaiyin Mountain on the east bank of Malong Stream. It is located in the homonymous Nine-Dragon Cave Scenic Area, which also has the sights of Jing River Valley, the Jing River Reservoir and some other caves such as Huangla, Qingming and Tian'e. Nine-Dragon Cave is situated on the slope of the Kwan-yin Hill on the right bank of the Malong Creek (Scolding Dragon Creek).

Jiulong Cave has a huge entrance portal, some 70 m wide and 5om high. Inside the passage becomes even bigger, the widest point is about 100 m wide.

The cave is named after an legend. Six yellow dragons once lived on the hill. One day they invited three black dragons from the Jing River. When they visited the cave together, they were facinated by the beauty and decided to live there. But each one wanted the cave for himself, so they started quarrelling with each other. They were squabbling until daybreak when they became tired. They climbed on the stalagmites where they became stone and are still visible today.

Actually most of the stalagmites were named after animals or landscapes. There are peacocks, lions, camels, monkeys, whelks, and sea turtles. Others resemble clouds, waterfalls, or flowers.

There is another cave close to the Nine-Dragon Cave, the Cold and Heated Wind Caves some 1.5 km off. It has three chambers, the first two with flat roof offer various speleothems with fantastic forms. The second chamber is noted for its curtains. The third chamber is almost circular, with a domed roof, and big enough to accommodate 10,000 people. In the middle of the chamber are six huge stalagmites with a height of about 30 m. A huge round stalagmite with a diameter of 9 m is called jellyfish.