Grottes et karsts de Chine
Sur les traces de Xu Xiake

Dong He Dong
The resurgence for all the cave waters of Xingwen is a gaping hole 10 m high and wide in a limestone bluff at floor level in the Daba He valley.
Gravel banks and shallow pools provide an underground highway westward. Remnants of a high level tube lie above the wide river canyon, but thus turns south before the entrance, ending close to the surface at a choke pocked by nitrate diggings. After 630 m of easy walking the cave develops into a series of swims through roof rifts of the main tube, but even these sump. The high level, with plentiful stalagmites, offers a way on, up through boulders, to emerge in a small doline where the old cave is truncated.
Another larger doline to the north has conspicuous entrances to three segments of old high level tubes, the largest with more nitrate diggings overlooked by stalagmites. The sink in the doline floor leads into Dong He Dong 2, down through boulders into a muddy passage with the roar of water ahead. The river is met cascading over boulders just above a sump. High shingle terraces on the south side offer an easy upstream walk for 400 m to where the roof lowers to a sump.
All these caves were first entered by local people. Stone steps, now largely washed out, gave easier access to the treasured nitrate workings. The resurgence cave is well ventilated, but Dong He Dong 2 has seriously bad air, due to pyrite oxidation, trapped below its single entrance.

WALTHAM, A.C; WILLIS, R.G. (eds.) (1993): Xingwen. China Caves Project 1989-1992.-
Bridgwater TA7 0LG, British Cave Research Association. 48pp. (maps, photos, surveys) (chinese abstract). ISBN 0-900265-15-9.
Analyse : BBS
A report on various projects: The Pan Yang Caves, Bama, Guangxi Province 1989. The Mengzi karst of southern Yunnan 1991. The karst of the Tibet Plateau 1992 and the largest part, the exploration of the Xingwen karst of Sichuan Province 1992. Geomorphol. map of Karst of Xingwen, Sichuan. Cave surveys of : Zhucaojing (Xingwen, Sichuan): 8,80 km +1,75 km; Tiencuan dong (Xingwen, Sichuan): 8,10 km /-208 m; Xia Dong (Xingwen, Sichuan): 2,20 km; Yanzi Luo Shui Dong (Xingwen, Sichuan): 1,80 km /- 316 m + 1,12 km / -199 m; Pan Yang Dong cave system (Bama Guangxi). (RM).

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