Zhijindong Cave National Geopark, located 152km from Guiyang city, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, boasts the tallest and thinnest stalactite and the most densely distributed cave chambers in the world.
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A stalactite grows from the side of the cave. [Photo by Liu Wei/chinadaily.com.cn] |
With the tallest stalactite trumping other stalactites by more than 150 meters and the maximum width at 175 meters, the geopark in Zhijin county covers an area of more than 700,000 square meters, which makes it two or three times larger than the world famous karst caves in European countries, including the ones in France.
The highest deposit among the 40 more kinds of deposits in the geopark is reported to be at least seven meters higher than the highest stalagmite in Cuba's Martin Hills Cave, which claims to be the world's highest.
Reasons behind the natural wonder are reportedly the crustal movement of Yanshan mountain and Himalayas.
Some form mirror images of each other. It's said that water dropping from the ceiling adds a fifth of a millimeter to the stalagmites' tips a year. The sands of time have fused some into hourglass-shaped pillars.
Their surfaces undulated with the accumulations of sedimentary minerals collected over hundreds of millennia.
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A stalactite shaped like a kind of Chinese stringed instrument pipa. [Photo by Liu Wei/chinadaily.com.cn] |
On Sep 19, 2015, Zhijindong Cave National Geopark was approved by UNESCO as a world geopark, becoming the first world geopark in Guizhou province.
