Changyu Dongtian

Changyu Stone Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Henglin Line, Wenling, Taizhou, Zhejiang (28.445098, 121.449105)
Open:	All year daily 8-16:30. [2021]
Fee:	Adults CNR 120, Children (<1.5 m) CNR 60, Children (<1.2 m) free, Disable free, Seniors (60-69) CBR 60, Seniors (70+) free, Students CNR 60. [2021]
Classification:	Rock Mine
Light:	electric
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Changyu Dongtian - Changyu Stone Cave, Henglin Line, Wenling, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Tel: +86-576-86598151,
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

1839	Li Yutai founded the Changyu stone mine, with 48 miners and an annual output of 9116 Zhang slate.
1959	renamed the local state-run Changyu stone mine.
1961	became a county collective enterprise.
1983	236 Changyu stone mines, Wenling Changyu stone mine joint company established.
1987	150 mines in Changyu stone mine complex, with an annual output of 87000 zhang stone slabs.
1990s	stone fades out of the construction market, scale of stone mining reduced.

Description

The coastal plain south of the estuary of Jiao River is more or less covered by cities, which have long grown together to form a big . The plain is fertile, and there are still fields,, but also one village beneath the other. In the center, west of the city Xinhezhen, a ridge of low hills extrudes from the Yandang Mountains to the northeast into the plain. The rocks of the 150 m high hills were very useful for various uses, but especially for sculptures and ornaments. So the hills were quarried for the rock which created huge cavernous quarries. And while not really underground, the openings are often much smaller than the floor, creating a cavern like atmosphere.

Today the quarrying has stopped and the quarries are used for other purposes. There are numerous temples, parks, trails and benches. The bigger chambers are used for concerts, conferences and other events.

The biggest quarry is called Guanxi Cave, which is about 60 m high with a diameter of about 100 m. It looks like a slant bell. The total area is 2,000 m² and can hold around one thousand people. It is also called Yandong Concert Hall. There are numerous stone sculptures, for example the 5 m high and 7 m wide Happy Buddha. It is entered across a stone bridge.

Shuiyun Cave contains a museum of quarrying relics, which are from six dynasties. The floor has 1000 m² and the ceiling has an opening which looks like a window into another cave one hundred meters above. The Quarrying scene displays Changyu’s unique quarrying technology and shows a sequence of six steps. Those are opening the surface, quarrying test, beating the rock and cutting, breaking supporting rock and scribing, chiseling and making slabstone. Iron solders, hammers and other tools for quarrying are displayed. When the quarry was still working, Experienced masters teached new workers during the quarrying process, by singing loud quarrying songs.

Double Door Grotto is another hige quarry with sculptures and the Double-door Cavern Taoist Temple. The whole cavern is dedicated to taoism.

There are no historical records when the qurrying started. But there hints that it started during the Wei and Jin Dynasties more than 1600 years ago. In the beginning only small amounts of rock were needed. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, large numbers of immigrants came to Xinhe area, and agriculture and mining of slate stone flourished. The heydays of strip stone and slate mining was during Song Dynasty, about 1000 years ago. At this time the capital Lin'an was relocated and the need of stones for water supply, transportation, urban construction, and the construction of seawalls and sluices, transformed the qurrying into an industry. After the Song Dynasty, the economy of Changyu declined, and so did the quarrying. In the early Ming Dynasty, Japanese invaders made the construction of walled cities along the coast necessary, which again increased the need for stone. In August 1839, Li Yutai founded the Changyu stone mine, with 48 miners and an annual output of 9116 Zhang slate.

Changyu is named after a long and narrow island on the sea because of the winding wind. The total area of the scenic spot is 16.18 square kilometers, which is composed of four scenic spots: Baxianyan, shuangmen cave, Chongguo temple and Yeshan mountain. Among them, Baxianyan and shuangmen cave are mainly cave group landscapes. Changyu Dongtian group is a landscape left after artificial mining of slate since the South and North Dynasties. It has a history of more than 1500 years