Three Natural Bridges

Three limestone spans cross the Yangshui River, a tributary of the Wu River, in Xiannüshan Town: Tianlong, Qinglong and Heilong, the sky, azure and black dragons. From the upper end of Tianlong to the lower end of Heilong the straight-line distance is only 1,500 metres, and between them lie two collapse hollows, the Qinglong and Shenying tiankengs, 276 to 285 metres deep and 300 to 522 metres across. The bridges are the nucleus of a conservation area of about 22 square kilometres which also holds the Yangshui karst canyon, the Longshui Gorge rift, two more tiankengs, caves and hidden streams. Chinese descriptions of the site say that three bridges of this size in succession on one river occur nowhere else.