The cave the farmers found, and the water still running under it

Local farmers found Furong Cave in 1993, and it opened to tourists in 1994. It lies on the Furong River about 20 kilometres from the Wulong district centre, near the confluence of the Furong and the Wu. The speed is worth noticing: from that find it became a national 4A tourist site by 2002, part of the South China Karst World Heritage listing in 2007, and a 5A scenic spot in 2011. It is 2,846 metres long and between 30 and 50 metres wide, and it was the first cave in China on the UNESCO list.

The cave's reputation rests on its deposits rather than on its size. More than 70 kinds have been counted inside, and the Chinese descriptions say they cover almost every type of karst cave deposit that scientists have named, with the pool deposits singled out as the finest. Among the features recorded are a stone waterfall more than 15 metres high whose foot carries coral-like growths up to 120 centimetres long, and a helictite in a side passage shaped like a deer's antler, 57 centimetres long and described as the longest in the world. That passage, the gypsum flower branch, is now permanently sealed.

Around the cave, in an area of about 20 square kilometres, stand more than 50 vertical shafts deeper than 100 metres; the Steam Shaft reaches 920 metres and is described as the deepest in Asia. The cave itself formed in the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, some 500 million years ago. Two things changed its situation in the last two decades. In 2012 it formed a sister relationship with Crams Cave in France. And a hydroelectric dam was built on the Furong River close to the cave mouth, at Jiangkou: the Chinese account notes that the effect of the reservoir on groundwater circulation and on the evolution of the karst is still hard to judge.