Several tourists riding a bamboo raft go into a small cave. [Photo by Huo Yan]

There are even small caves in the ceiling of the bigger caves. When the river water rises, the entrances to the small caves will be submerged by water, making them ideal hiding places for not only animals, but also bandits and the guerrillas during China’s civil war from 1930s to 1940s.

The water color of the Panyang River also changes from dark green to light green, in different sections of it, along with the changes of water depth and lights. The sinkholes look like funnels covered with thick plantation from the top of the mountains, with the stream appearing at the small bottom of them.

Some sinkholes are as large as a basketball court. The small ones are the area of a pingpang table. The height of the mountains gives great depth to the sinkholes. Some dry caves are as high as skyscrapers. Under the natural bridges are various kinds of plants that are rarely seen outside the geopark. Mist often shrouds the mountains and caves. The moisture atmosphere dyes each leaf and flower with bright emerald green.

There is also a dark side of the beautiful landscape. A tourism development firm contracted the karst geopark of Fengshan from local government for 70 years several years ago. Local villages revealed the contract fund was only 70 million yuan, too cheap a price for such a big public property, they complained.

Many infrastructure constructions promised by the firm have not been built till now. A distinct problem is the disposal of life garbage and waste left by tourists. Burning the waste in open air on road side is the main way to get rid of it. But the soil and air are polluted.

After the highway connecting Fengshan and Baise, a regional hub city, is completed in a few years, as it is planned, more tourists will flow to the geopark, posing higher requirements for reception and environmental measures to minimize their impacts on local ecology.

Many unique living creatures will die out gradually, if the government leaves all responsibilities of environmental conservation to the development firm.

There is a kind of little fish living in clusters in the underground stream under the mountains since ancient times, as locals said. Yet, the fish is disappearing soon after they became a famous local specialty dish, frying them in their own oil on a pan.

The clean environment attracts tens of thousands sick people, called migratory bird people, to resident in the villages, who believe the water, air and food can help them cure their diseases. Indeed, some people feel their chronic illnesses, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, are relieved after living in the mountains for several months.

The silk people with skin diseases directly wash their bodies in the river, the lower reach of which are important water sources for several counties, also renowned for longevity.

Moreover, the migratory bird people help local villagers build tall buildings everywhere in the valley. These buildings, even eight-storey high, are lack of planning and poor in design. If this trend is not checked, the old lifestyle in Fengshan will be a thing of the past soon.

Contributed by Lan Lin