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| LongYou caves complex entrance |
I had been planning to take a day trip out of Quzhou for some weeks, but today was the first day that everything came together to achieve it. I’d been to the bus station to check out the process of trying to go somewhere by bus, and felt confident to do it.
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| LongYou grotto scenic area map |
Also Marzena, a Polish English teacher at the adjacent university was also interested in a trip. The weather was perfect, so we set off to the bus depot, bought tickets and waited for our bus to LongYou (Dragon Swimming) Grottoes which was our destination.
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A rather solid-looking
signpost |
Well, we arrived at LongYou township but it looked like just another town on the flat plain. I had the distinct feeling that I had brought us to completely the wrong place!
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Marzena looking at what we thought
we paid 65Yuan for - a hole in a rock,
but the real thing was further on. |
I managed to explain to a taxi driver what we were looking for. We were apparently in the right town, and he took us the short 10 minute ride to the grotto complex which had a most impressive entrance.
The entry was also comparatively expensive 65 Yuan ($10AUS) but the venue was well appointed with a number of audio-visual rooms showing videos about the complex – all in Chinese. There was also a polite sign “Please speak Mandarin”.
I’ve mentioned it before, but it is still surprising to find that almost no-one speaks English here, except for the odd “Hello”.
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| Part of the above-ground complex |
The Longyou Grottoes complex is a comprehensive underground network of huge rooms, which were formed by cutting into the rock in ancient times – ie. not naturally formed.
They were discovered in 1992, but no one knows who dug the grottoes or how they were used – for storage, ceremonies, protection, or burial. It has now been developed as a tourist attraction.
According to the scientific statistics, there are 24 carved stone grottoes with their sizes ranging from 1000 to 3000 square meters and scattered in an area of about 0.38 square kilometres.
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| Descending into the first grotto |
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Looking up towards the
entrance from the floor of
the first grotto |
It all looked fairly uninteresting – until we headed underground.
We entered the first of four major rooms that were incredibly impressive. The main grottoes are about 30m high with 3-4 stone columns supporting the roof, and some have carvings in the walls resembling ancient birds, fishes and horses.
The lighting was minimal and so photography was almost impossible. There were hardly any people around, but we met a Chinese import-export businessman who spoke quite good English so we had an interesting conversation about the underground complex… and cultural differences.
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| Rock carving in a grotto |
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| Carved rock walls and pillar |
We slowly wound our way from grotto to grotto – each similar in dimensions, but with different wall decorations.
For some reason the camera recorded some quite weird colours – maybe due to the different types of lighting used, although they seemed similar to the eye. I was amazed at the lack of security and the fact that we could touch (if we wanted to) these centuries-old walls and rock carvings. This may change with time though. They even had a tacky tourist shop, the first I’ve seen, that sold all the nick-nacks you’d expect – but no postcards!
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Our very happy, well-paid
'duk-duk' driver |
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| Photo of a similar vehicle |
So, after spending a pleasant hour or so there we had to get back to town. Fortunately for us there was a small 3-wheel duk-duk type ‘taxi’ near the exit to take us back to town - also fortunate for him as he grossly overcharged us.
On the way to the grottoes, we’d seen a large pagoda near the river so we got him to drop us there.
It was another fairly new landscaped recreation complex similar to the on along the river in Quzhou – pagoda, stone sculptures, winding paths, and small alcoves where groups of people could enjoy themselves.
We aim to make more of these excursions before the weather turns too cold and unpleasant, especially now that the first one was pretty successful.
PS: Here’s a website with some photos of
Long You, Qu Zhou and Zhuge Liang Bagua Cun, Zhejiang Province.
