Situated in the Yanziyan Mountain Range, 7.2 kilometers from Yingde city of Qingyuan, Baojing Palace is a karst cave of about 16,000 square kilometers, the largest of its kind in southern China. Just like its name, Baojing Palace (meaning the palace of treasure and crystal) is special because of its four-layer palace-like structure, its great variety of stalactites and their crystal-like quality.
In Baojing Palace, you get to see all kinds of stalactites; in one section you see a magnificent royal hall and in another you find yourself in a narrow and twisted labyrinth. Tiny hollow stone tubes hanging from the ceiling and giant stone pillars rising from the ground are both to be found here.
The palace is also of great geological and archeological value. In 1996, the provincial institute of archeology discovered 100,000-year-old tools from the Paleolithic era in the ancient riverbed of the cave.
The magnificent Baojing Palace is best visited in conjunction with the graceful Biluo Cave just 1.2 kilometers away. As a provincial cultural relic, Biluo Cave is the home to over 120 ancient inscriptions carved on the cliff. These works of celebrated writers and poets of ancient China have been preserved for over the 1000 years. It is also said that seven elixir of life were hidden in the cave by Ge Hong, a Taoist alchemist who once obtained immortality there.
