Puhua: the river that runs under the hill
Where the Apeng country sends its water into limestone, and what a cave river does between one valley and the next.
Puhua Underground River
Puhua is the underground river of Qianjiang District, where a surface stream finds a hole in the limestone and continues out of sight. The name belongs to a community of Zhuoshui township, and the cave lies in the karst country that gives the district its gorges: the Apeng cuts one, and the scenic lists add Guandu, Shengui and Wuli. The district runs from 320 metres at its lowest to 1,938.5 at its highest, and most of that relief is soluble rock. What a visitor meets is a river that behaves like a corridor: it enters a hill, runs in the dark, and comes out somewhere else with its load of lime still in solution. The passage is followed by boat.