Before you even see the cave, you can hear it roaring. That's the Tenglong (Flying Dragon)Cave, located on the upper reaches of the Qingjiang River, on the outskirts of Lichuan City in Hubei Province. It first brings people a strong acoustic thrill. When l was two or three kilometers away from it, I could already hear a loud. insistent noise. At the entrance of the Tenglong Cave, the"400-kilometer winding Qingjiang River" suddenly drops, thus forming a waterfall some 50 meters wide and 30 meters high. Devoured by the "huge mouth" of the Tenglong Cave, the river meanders inside the cave for 16.8 kilometers. With a huge flow.
Of the some 400 show caves in China, the Tenglong Cave is amongst the largest. with a total length of 52. 8 kilometers, second in length only to the Shuanghe Cave in Suiyang. Its entrance is 74 meters high and 64 meters wide. Inside, it reaches as high as 235 meters with a total area of more than two million square meters, giving an average per capita living space of three square meters if Lichuan's 800,000 population decided to move in. The cave consists of five hills. 10 Chambers and a dozen waterfallsaa. |