JiuShan Cave

I was interested to see if there was much difference between the Jiushan caves that I had visited 10 years ago, versus how it would look to us today.  I was a bit foolish to assume that rock formations that were several million years old would have changed much.  They hadn't.  I was also happy to see that human traffic had not damaged the caves in that time either.  They still were as impressive as before.
  I was very happy to have my family and Emma with me this time through our roughly 1 mile journey underground (which included a boat ride), although it was very bittersweet, as this was one of the happiest times I had with my good friend Jin YongMing, a volunteer for Packages of Hope, who has now passed on.

 Above is me in 2005 at the cave entrance.  To the right of me is JinYongMing.

The cave entrance today

 The cave maintains a constant temperature, which means it was warmer than the outside air in December, and it was cooler in summer.  We had the caves to ourselves, but I understand that it is packed in summer with visitors.

 This is the largest open area of the cavern, and the picture of course does not do it justice.  It is absolutely enormous, and I really do not want to know how such a huge open span of rock above us remains unsupported.

The walkway beyond gives an idea of the scale of this cavern.

In 2005, I took a photo with my wonderful friend, Jin YongMing

In 2015, I stand in the same spot, alone.  I miss him dearly, he was much better and greater than me.  I still don't understand why someone with such goodness in his heart had to be taken from us.  He is always with me in spirit.

 I'm not a geologist, but I understand that unlike many other caves that have limestone as the composition of the rock, there are very few stalactites and stalagmites. This unique formation contains some crystals that shimmer in the light.

(above) Beautiful reflection from the pond at the bottom of the photo.

(above) I'm very thankful that they changed the cave path to be one continuous rock/concrete walkway.

In 2005, there were a few of THESE guys as pathways (the 2 photos above), and I thought they were deadly.  Luckily none of these exist now.

At the end of the cave walk, there is a boat dock, where you board a boat for a short journey to the cave exit.  The clearance is a bit tight, but it made for a thrilling ride.

The exit to the cave is very non-descript, and leads to an area where people board a tram for a short ride partially down the mountain.

Above is our nice and modern transport.

Below you can see what I rode 10 years ago:

10 years ago, the transport was a bit more primitive, but it took us all the way down the mountain.  During THIS trip, the nice new transport stopped off at this waypoint, and the driver informed us that the welcome center was "700 meters, that way", pointing off down the direction of this path.  Little did we know that our destination was in fact those little tiny buildings you see in the distance in this photo, which was WAAAAAAY more than 700 meters away.  For the rest of our journey in China, our running joke for how far we had to walk to any given destination was "oh, it's only 700 meters".

At the end of the path, right before the welcome center, is an MiG-15.  These photos above show the same plane, and the same guy, but 10 years apart.  I'm hoping the plane looks the worse for wear.

On our way out of the park, we saw a new geologic museum under construction.  Something to see for the next time I come!