Meishan Dragon Palace

Overview

About

The Dragon Palace lies at Gaoqiao village on the west bank of the Zi River in Youxi township, bounded by the Xinbai road on the east, the ridges of Huangmaoli and Dongfanghong to the south-west and Qingshi Mountain to the north, 3 km²: two hills enclosing a valley (Hidden Dragon Valley), two waters embracing a bend (Coiled Dragon Bay) and hill and water joining at a cave (the Dragon Palace, also the Hidden Soldiers Cave). The scenery unfolds from broad water to enclosed valley to cave to sudden openness, the karst passages crossing in three dimensions. Xinhua was anciently called Meishan, hence the name.

The cave has been explored for 2,876 m with 58,600 m² developed and a 466 m underground river. It is a multi-storey structure of unusual form, by water and by land, nine levels and tens of thousands of chambers, safe and sound: experts find the cave has reached natural equilibrium over 500,000 years with a roof of thick, strong rock, and it is well ventilated.

It has abundant flowstone, stalagmites and stalactites, cross-section and residual micro-forms, in six groups: the Dragon Palace Welcome, the Blue Water Lotus Palace, the Creation, the Heavenly Garden, Meishan Customs and Dragon and Phoenix. Its four wonders are the 80 m multi-storey Cave Mansion in the Clouds, the Birth of Nezha, the Heavenly Rime and the Golden Mountain in the Water.

Confucius Travelling to Teach, life-size, vivid and lifelike, is one of the cave’s emblems. The Blue Water Lotus Palace is the 466 m underground river: boating through, the channel is narrow and winding, the banks jagged with rocks and peaks, stalactites, stalagmites, stone flags and curtains everywhere, and a huge Lotus Hall with clear veins and water flowing like a curtain. The Birth of Nezha is a huge natural stalactite lotus split down the middle, a fallen petal and the red-clotted body of Nezha, the lotus seeming able to open and close. The Golden Mountain in the Water has tens of thousands of flawless white soda straws and varied stalactites above and a natural Jade Pool of 368 m² below, its floor flat as a mirror, with a gracefully curved natural dam about a metre high on one side; the straws and stalactites reflected in the pool make a huge glittering golden mountain. The Heavenly Rime is cave deposit formed by capillary action, growing without pattern and fine as ox hair. Treasure within Treasure, about 6 m high, is divided into two storeys by a thin sandy section of ancient riverbed: strange stalactites, pagoda-like stalagmites and translucent veined curtains above, a surface of fine white soda straws below, supported by columns marked by flowing water, like a richly decorated antique pavilion.