Written by Takashi Nanjo
At that time, under the call of "digging deep holes, accumulating grain, and not seeking hegemony," this slogan was set as a nine-character national policy at that time, and became the strongest voice for the Chinese people to overcome difficulties in that era.
The military and civilians throughout the country have artificially built many holes, 1 These holes hidden deep in the mountains and underground are not called holes, but are called air defense fortifications. In order to reduce casualties in wartime, large and medium-sized cities with dense populations quickly built air defense fortifications so that they could hide underground when the Soviet Union's nuclear strike came. Since then, I have been fond of caves, and I often play hide and seek in the cave with my friends.
In recent years, I have been to many karst caves in China, including Zhijin Cave in Guizhou, Yinzi Cave in Guangxi, Wanhua Karst Cave in Chenzhou, Hunan, etc., and I always thought that they were the same, nothing more than some water caves, dry caves, stalactites and other caves. However, in late November 2023, I came across the first big cave in my life, Icheon Tengryong Cave.
That day, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, my wife and I came to the Tenglong Cave Visitor Center in Ichuan, took the scenic bus to Tenglong Cave, felt the breath of nature, listened to the sound of the flowing water of the Qingjiang River, the mother of the Tujia family, and stepped on the winding rural stone road, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and enjoyed the tranquility of nature.
Tenglong Cave is located in Enshi Lichuan, Hubei Province, the birthplace of the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River, and the suburbs of Lichuan City, a border city in southwest Hubei Province, at the intersection of Daba Mountain and Wulingyuan. Tenglong Cave is a national 5A-level scenic spot, the largest karst cave that has been discovered in China, ranking seventh among the longest caves that have been proven in the world, one of the world's super-grade caves, and is said to be the largest karst cave in Asia.
I walked into the Tenglong Cave scenic spot and found that a hundred meters away from the entrance of the cave, there was a red wooden tripod-type gate, and above the gate hung a hollow big letter: "Tenglong Cave". Entering the door, moving forward along the left bank of the Qingjiang River, bursts of roaring, endless. Glancing to the right, there is a sign at the railing, with the inscription: "Wolong Swallow River Waterfall". Eight hundred miles of Qingjiang River suddenly fell more than 30 meters here, forming a majestic "Wolong swallowing river" landscape. A huge snow-white waterfall rushes down and then burrows into a cave. This is the Wolong Swallow River Waterfall next to the main cave entrance of Tenglong Cave, the drop is more than 30 meters, the front section of the waterfall is still relatively gentle, it explodes after encountering the stone, rushes down, pours thousands of miles, roars like thunder, magnificent, shocking. It's like a giant dragon opening its big mouth and chewing and devouring Qingjiang. Yintao was caught up in the curling pulp, and the aftermath splashed on the tourists' clothes. "One bite of the madness, thunder still listens to the hunger. "The ancients' description of the mouth of the sinkhole is just right.
According to the narrator, the total length of the underground flow of the water hole is 16.8 kilometers, there are 18 "skylights", 4 underground lakes, 5 underground waterfalls, strange and beautiful, and the exit is in the black hole. Except for the subterranean landscape from the mouth of the sinkhole to the mouth of the silver carp hole, which can be visited by boat, other sections have not yet been developed. Due to time constraints, we didn't go on a boat, leaving some regrets.
Along the plank road built on the cliff wall on both sides of the Tenglong Cave Water Cave, cross two stone bridges, step on the cliff plank road, and the cool wind blows from the cave. Standing on the stone bridge across the water hole, I saw the waves of the river surging clearly, and then plunged 30 meters into the water hole. "The white waves rise across the river, and the teeth are rubbed into snow." A large river, with a flow rate of 30 cubic meters per second, dives underground. Walk across the stone bridge, cross the "Qingjiang Dark River (Water Cave)", turn several bends, climb hundreds of stone steps, and come to the entrance of Tenglong Cave. I was stunned, I had never seen such a large natural cave, it was so big! It is not an exaggeration to describe it with the words "tall and spacious, majestic and magnificent". It is said that this cave can accommodate a helicopter to enter and exit freely, and the stone wall on the left side of the cave entrance is engraved with the three words "Tenglong Cave".
The first scenic spot after entering the cave entrance, "Buddha Pond", has a unique design and ingenious conception, using light, water, shadow and the cave entrance to form a beautiful landscape painting. The huge lawn is presented in front of you, named "Qinghe Ancient Riverbed", and there is a pool that is not deep, but crystal clear, named "Dragon Birthday Pool". I visually measured the height of the entrance to the Dragon Cave, which was 30 stories high, and I felt as if I had become smaller.
There is a conference living room in the hole, with an area of 150,000 square meters, due to erosion and rock collapse, a huge peacock is formed on the roof of the hall, the peacock raises its crown, and the color screen unfolds like a fan stone, as if it is greeting visitors from afar, so this large living room is also known as the peacock welcome hall. The living room was originally a place where the ancients built stoves to boil nitrate. It is said that when the expedition first entered the cave, there were pits with a diameter of 2-3 meters scattered at the bottom of the hall. Now, these ancient chemical workshops are almost gone, leaving only one or two nitrate pits and stove holes on the left side of the cave wall, so that we can also understand the style of the ancients to boil soil nitrate.
I curiously took a look at the introduction of Tenglong Cave and knew that the cave is 72m high, 64m wide, the height of the main part of the cave is nearly 100 meters, the length of the cave that has been proved is 52.8 kilometers, the cave area is more than 2 million square meters, the high mountain in the cave is as high as 125 meters, the highest point of the cave is 237 meters, which is equivalent to a building of more than 60 floors, and the widest part is 174 meters, which is comparable to the length of two football fields. There are 5 peaks, 10 halls, and more than 10 underground waterfalls in the cave. The landscape in the cave is mysterious. There are also more than 150 cave halls and more than 140 kinds of pictographic stones. Tenglong Cave is composed of water hole, dry hole, catfish hole, cool wind cave, exclusive village and three dragon gates, Huaxian pit and other scenic spots. Tenglong Cave whole cave group has five layers up and down, of which there are more than 300 large and small branch caves, there are mountains in the holes, there are holes in the mountains, there are water in the holes, the water holes are connected, constitute a huge and majestic cave landscape, it can be described as a three-dimensional cave, it is more complicated than the tunnel built by the Japanese devils in Ranzhuang in the Jizhong Plain in those years, if the little devils come to this cave in the year, let them have no return.
When I joined the army, the island I was on was just over 6 square kilometers, and there were many tunnels built on the island, which were long enough. In the event of war, it will not be a problem to hide all the soldiers and civilians on the island, as well as the weapons and ammunition, in the caves. Now, after entering the Tenglong Cave, I realized what is the truth of "there is a sky outside the sky, and there are people outside the people", and the cave of the island cannot be compared with the Tenglong Cave. Therefore, I guess that if there is a war, even if thousands of troops are hidden in holes, they will not be easily discovered by the enemy.
There are two flat avenues in Tenglong Cave, one for tourists to walk and the other for sightseeing cars. In order to be in a hurry, we spent 20 yuan and got on the sightseeing bus, because there were no tourists except us at that time, and the sightseeing bus became a "private car".
The sightseeing car goes all the way along the road in the cave, and the colorful lights in the cave cast a veil of mystery on the deep and dark Tenglong Cave, and also illuminate the way forward for the sightseeing car to explore the cave. Suddenly, I found two lines of words written by Feng Mu, the former vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, on the right side of the cave wall: "When climbing the mountain, you should climb Mount Everest, and you should swim the dragon when you see the victory."
The car continued to drive deeper, I felt more and more that there are mountains in the cave, there are caves in the mountains, the water holes are connected to the dry holes, the main caves and branch holes are interconnected, and there is no poisonous gas, no snakes and scorpions, no pollution, the constant temperature in the cave is 14-18 °C all year round, and the air is smooth.
A large performance hall suddenly appeared in front of me, and the largest ecological theater in the cave - Tenglong Theater. I saw a lot of people sitting in their seats waiting for the show. We hurried over and sat here to rest our feet and watch the show.
"Yishui Lichuan" is a song and dance program rehearsed in Tenglong Cave Scenic Area, which aims to show tourists the arduous process of the Tujia ancestors in the process of great migration, the tenacious spirit of fighting with nature and the customs of the Tujia people through singing and dancing, so that tourists can pursue the beautiful and tragic stories in the large-scale original ecological song and dance drama - "Yishui Lichuan". Its magnificent stage design, gorgeous dances, and Tujia culture have a long history. According to the security guard, from 2005 to the present, "Yishui Lichuan" has been performed more than 7,000 times, and more than 10 million Chinese and foreign tourists have watched the show.
The performance is very exciting, the actors are very high in terms of acting skills and quality, the picture and lighting are very beautiful, it is very worth watching, and the performance is about an hour. The main thing is that there is no extra charge for the show, and you can watch it as long as you have a ticket.
After watching the performance, I continued to move forward, and saw that there are cliff corridors, Longlin Mountain, time tunnels, maiden caves, turtle water moist mushrooms and other scenic spots in the cave, which are very beautiful under the illumination of colorful lanterns.
The further you go into the cave, the lower the temperature and the more humid it becomes, and it is indeed a good place to escape the heat, but it is really not good to wear less and stay for a long time. We had no choice but to return. On the way back, I saw that there are many places to store sake in the cave, and I guess that the sake in this cave must be delicious, and the temperature is 14~18 degrees Celsius all year round, making it an excellent sake cellar.
For most tourists, coming to Tenglong Cave is to appreciate its magnificence, huge cave body, and to appreciate its magnificence.
It is no wonder that in 1988, 25 Chinese and foreign cave experts spent 32 days to investigate the cave and came to the conclusion that Tenglong Cave is the largest karst cave in China and one of the world's super-grade caves. In 2005, it was rated as "the most beautiful place in China" and "the six most beautiful tourist caves in China - Shocking Tenglong Cave" by the national authoritative publication "China National Geographic".
This trip to Tenglong Cave feels like an unexpected gain, and I really didn't expect it to be so good. It seems that no matter when or what happens, you can't hope too much, and the higher the hope, the greater the disappointment. When you don't have hope, it will surprise you, and the trip to Tenglong Cave gave me a big surprise. As a group of tourists in Hong Kong said after visiting Tenglong Cave: "After seeing the Tenglong Cave in Lichuan, there is no need to see other caves in Chinese mainland. After an interview with three reporters from a certain newspaper, they wrote such a news headline: "Tenglong returns without looking at the hole."
At present, Tenglong Cave is only about 5 kilometers away from the entrance of the cave, and to be honest, there are not too many stalagmites, stone pillars, stalactites and other cave deposits in these five kilometers of caves. Therefore, we only say that Tenglong Cave is "majestic" and "magnificent", but we do not say that it is "beautiful". If all the caves of about 60 kilometers are developed, what kind of scenery and what kind of shock it will be, let's wait and see!
A recent photograph of a hermit in Nanzhuang
Personal profile: Liu Base (net name: Nanzhuang Hermit), male, from Sanhe, Hebei, now lives in Jinan, Shandong, graduated from the Chinese Department of Qufu Normal University. He went to the countryside, served as a soldier, went to a military school, went through business, and worked in politics, and is now retired. Since childhood, I have liked literature, and have written blackboard newspapers, edited serial newspapers, and submitted manuscripts. He has been a citizen journalist in Jinan, a writer-in-residence, a member of the Shandong Prose Literature Association, and a member of the Jinan Writers Association in Shandong. In the past 30 years, thousands of manuscripts have been adopted by national, provincial and municipal newspapers and magazines and various literary networks, and dozens of articles have won different awards.