Huanglong Cave

Located 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) on the hillside in Suxigu Town in Wulingyuan Scenic Spot Area of Zhangjiajie City, Huanglong Cave is 36 (22 miles) kilometers away from the city center and 36 kilometers (22 miles) away from the railway station as well as 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from the Exit of Chang-Zhang Highway (from Changsha City to Zhangjiajie City), which is large in scale and rich in contents with fascinating sceneries of all kinds. It is famous all over the world for its enormous three-dimensional structure, rich Karst caves and tourism routes, and it is very cool throughout the year like a huge natural air-conditioner. Huanglong Cave was open to the public from 1984, attracting more than 10,000,000 visitors from all over the world since its opening, which is bestowed with the title of “the Champion of the World Karst Caves” and “the Most Fascinating Tourism Cave in China”.

The main features of Huanglong Cave

As the main attraction in Wulingyuan Scenic Spot Area, Huanglong Cave is 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) long and 140 meters (459 feet) high in size with a total area of 100,000 square kilometers (38,610 square miles), which can be divided into four layers: two layers of drought caves and two layers of water caves, with rivers, stalagmites, steles and stalactites as well as smaller caves and stone screens in Huanglong cave. There are one reservoir-Huanglong Reservoir, two rivers（Xiangshui River and Crystal River, three underground waterfalls (Huanglong Waterfall, Tianshui Waterfall and Tiandi Waterfall), four pools, thirteen palaces such as Dragon-Dancing Palace, Crystal Palace and Charming Palace and ninety-six wandering corridors as well as tens of peaks, and the biggest palace is 12,000 square meters (14,351 square yards) which can hold 10,000 people at the same time. The main attractions here are: Xiangshui River, Dragon-Dancing Palace, the Dragon Palace, Tianxian Palace, the Heaven-Post Street and Labyrinth, all of which are connected to one another with its unique characteristic.

Xiangshui River

Xiangshui River is 2,820 meters (3,084 yards) long with 6 meters deep (20 feet) and 16℃ in water temperature on average, where there are lots of giant salamanders in the river. Sitting in the boat on the meandering river, you will see the serene valleys and the cliffs on each side of the river, which are dim and indistinct with mysterious atmosphere, and it seems as if you are back to the ancient past days. There are many charming sceneries along the river: the Helmet of King Dragon, the Seashell Floating in the Sky, Trumpet Shell Blowing the Heaven, Yinlong Valley and Tianxian Bridge, which deserves your attention very much.

Tianxian Palace

As the widest palace in Huanglong Cave, Tianxian Palace is 105 meters (115 yards) long from west to east and 96 meters (105 yards) wide from south to north, and there is a vast waterfall cluster with 62 meters (68 yards) wide from north to south and 105 meters (115 yards) long from west to east, centered with Huanglong Waterfall, which has a drop height of 40 meters (131 feet). Now it is the biggest stone waterfall cluster in scale in China. The stone waterfalls turn yellow owing to the large contents of soil in the river, which is bestowed with the title of “Loess Plateau”.

The Dragon Palace

As the biggest palace as well as the oldest palace in Huanglong Cave, the Dragon Palace is 40 meters (131 feet) high, covering an area of 14,000 square meters (16,744 square yards), and it is composed of 1,750 stalagmites and steles in the palace, 516 of which are over one meter (3 feet) in height. The whole Dragon Palace is majestic and grand with many stalagmites and steles that are very true to life with infinite varieties. The main attractions in the Dragon Palace are: the Throne of the King Dragon, Trumpet Shell Hiding its Body, Golden Rooster Crowing and the Preternatural Needle of the Ocean, among which the Preternatural Needle of the Ocean is very special with 19.2 meters (63 feet) high, thick in two ends and thin in the middle, and it takes more than 200,000 years to form thie Preternatural Needle of the Ocean. The senior counselor of the World Heritage Committee said: “This is the most centralized area of Karst cave with vivid profile in the world, which deserves the title of “the wonder of the Karst Landforms in the World”, and it is very fascinating and wonderful”.

Getting there

Huanglong Cave is located on the hillside in Suxiyu Town in Wulingyuan Scenic Spot Area of Zhangjiajie City, which is 36 (22 miles) kilometers away from the city center and 36 kilometers (22 miles) away from the railway station. You can take a bus from Zhangjiajie Bus Station to Wulingyuan Bus Station, and transfer to a bus No. 1 to get there directly. It is open from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm every day.