Tian’egong Cave
Lying in the left bank of Sihe River at the junction between Changhe Village, Fuzhi Township, and Yanxi Village, Gaoping Township, Yongshun County, Tian’egong (Swan Palace) Cave is developed in the strata of Tongzi Formation（O1t） in the lower Ordovician system, and is subject to the control of a fracture running in the direction of northwast. Lithologically, it belongs to grey-light grey, thick limestone and dolomitic limestone mixed with dolomite.
The entrance to the cave is about 20m higher than the water surface. It is 10m high and 5m wide, with a length of 2km for the cave that has been explored. The front section is a water cave, which is about 100m long and can only be accessed by boat. The subterranean streams in the cave are full of twists and turns, with gurgling water, and are rich in stalactites. After the water cave are three steps of landscape. The first step is a 100m-long subterranean river channel, and along the two sides of the river are distributed many special landscapes of stalactites in different shapes, such as “Monkey King Stealing Treasures, “The Cowboy and Weaving Girl Meeting Happily”, and “The Dance Hall of Dragon Girl”, etc. The second step is a dry cave, or the stone passage, which is more than 200m long. Many speleothems are developed in the cave, including stalagmite, stone column, stone curtain, cave flower and stone fall. There are many different combinations of shapes, such as “Snow-capped Mountain under the Sea”, ”Great Wall under the Water”, “Palace Lantern”, “Eight Immortals Gathering together”, and “Tortoise Hatching an Egg”, etc.
The third step is a chamber, which is 200m long and 20-50m wide. The chamber is surrounded by subterranean streams, and is full of different landforms, such as stalactites, stone column, cave pearl, stone curtain, stone fall and karren field. In the cave is developed a waterfall, which has a drop of 25m and overflow width of 5m. Below the waterfall is a lake, in which there are many stalagmites of strange shapes, looking like swans which are fluttering their wings to dance. Hence, the cave is called Tian’egong, or “Swan Palace” ( Photo 4-98).
Photo 4-98 Tian’egong (Swan Palace) Cave
QR Code
