Jiguandong

Jiguan Cave - Jiguan Cavern - Cockscomb Limestone Cave


Useful Information

Location: At the foot of Mt. Jiguan. 3 km west of Luanchuan.
(33.78449653951116, 111.57068029631259)
Open: All year daily 8:30-17:30.
[2021]
Fee: Adults CNY 80, Children (<1.4 m) free.
[2021]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System LightColoured Light
Dimension: L=5,600 m, VR=138 m, T=18 °C.
Guided tours: L=1,800 m.
Photography:  
Accessibility:  
Bibliography:  
Address: Jiguandong, Tel: +86-379-6890998, Fax: +86-379-6890271. E-mail: contact
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

18th century cave discovered.
AUG-1992 County Party Committee and the County Government decided to develop the Cockscomb Cave.
10-APR-1993 opened to the public.
09-JAN-2012 awarded the title of National 5A Tourist Scenic Spot by China National Tourism Administration.

Description

Jiguandong was named after mount Jiguan (1,021 m asl) where it is located. It is also known as Cockscomb Limestone Cave. The cave was discovered during the reign of Qianlong Emperor from 1735 to 1796 in the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911). It is mentioned in the Luanchuan County Chronicle. The description tells that it has four chambers, and various formations. We are actually not sure if the description of snakes and bats means there are actually such animals or if this are descriptions of speleothems. Chinese texts tend to babble about fantastic interpretations instead of real facts.

The development of this cave was decided in AUG-1992 by the county government. They invested 1.8 million yuan to build entrance buildings, opening a new entrance and exit, building the trail in the cave and installing electric light. In APR-1993 the cave was opened to the public. In 2000, after seven years, 681,000 tourists had visited the cave which equals a revenue of 10.49 million yuan and profits and taxes of 500,000 yuan. This makes the cave one of the top ten tourist attractions in Henan Province.

The cave is entered through an artificial entrance tunnel which is 30 m long. The first chamber named Yuzhu Tan has stalactites, stalagmites and a cave lake. On the left side is the natural entrance, which has a diameter of less than a meter. That's the reason why the artificial entrance was necessary. On the left side is a vertical shaft which goes up 38 m to the surface. After the second chamber a descend of 30 m leads to the third chamber named Duanxiong Palace. This is said to be the most beautiful part of the cave. The natural connection to the next chamber is a sump with clay and a diameter of one meter. The artificial tunnel which connects them now is named Jade Snail. On the other end of this tunnel the cave river is reached. The limestone rich karst water produces a roaring sound. On the first iron staircase you can see the snowflake stones on the left, which are covered by white calcite crystals. There are also bulbous calcite or grape-shaped stone flowers which are said to emit fluorescence.

After many more speleothems with fancy names there is a section where small stalagmites on the floor are called stumbling blocks. We are not sure why they were integrated in the trail, an elevated trail might have been a better solution. We guess the reason is to make the tour a little more interesting.

The cave was extended by the Jiguandong Alpine Peony Garden in November 2005. It seems to be quite popular and there is a one-week festival in May called the golden week. We guess that's the time when the flowers bloom.