重庆老龙洞

Chongqing Laolong Dong - Old Dragon Cave


Useful Information

Location: Huangjueya Jinzhushi Yard, Nan'an District, Chongqing 400065
(29.476496, 106.581065)
Open: All year daily 9-17.
[2021]
Fee: Adults CNY 20, Children (<1.20 m) CNY 20, Children (<1 m) free.
Electric Boat CNY 30, Rubber Boat CNY 40.
[2021]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System LightColoured Light
Dimension:
Guided tours: self guided, D=1h
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:
Address: Chongqing Laolong Cave, Huangjueya Jinzhushi Yard, Nan'an District, Chongqing 400065, Tel: +86-23-6248-1114.
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


Description

重庆老龙洞 (Chongqing Laolongdong, Old Dragon Cave) is a small show cave in the middle of the province capital Chongqing. The river cave is the spring of the Yin River and has many speleothems and is annoyingly coloured with red and blue light. It's also possible to rent rubber boats to paddle along the cave river, which is rather unique. The small park around the cave entrance has numerous fishponds and restaurants, the spring water from the cave is used for the ponds. The Laolong Cave-Fishing Village lives from the cave and the fish, which are sold in the restaurants. It is also exceptional that there is a cave in the middle of a big city.

In front of the cave entrance is a jetty for electric plastic boats. So there are actually three different tours. The walking tour is done by foot. The normal boat tour starts at the jetty and is a boat ride into the cave in the developed and electrically lit section. The third tour is a bit adventurous, the rubber boats are used to visit the undeveloped rear part of the cave. As it is necessary to get to the starting point, you have to buy a ticket for one of the other tours and for the rubber boat.

The cave is named Old Dragon Cave, because after a legend the old dragon trapped here is roaring now and then. Thats obviously the sound of the river during high water. Most of the time the sound of the river can not be heard. The only dragon here is made of concrete and was placed above the cave entrance.

The city Chongqing was built in the plains along the Yangts river, but on the eastern side there are two limestone ridges. The parallel ridges run almost north to south and are an eroded anticline, which is more than 40 km long, but only 4 km wide. The limestone on the top of the fault was eroded first, the layers below were obviously softer and an inverted relief formed. The two ridges enclose a valley, the ridges are the catchment area for spring which are located outside and in the central valley.