Grottes et karsts de Chine
Sur les traces de Xu Xiake

Stream drops from smooth rock approx 60m. Apparently stream often dry. Can also climb up to the opposite side to overlook the hole which is perhaps 30m higher still. The nearest house to the Tiankeng was Sheng Kang Ba (characters written on entrance sheet) and said we could stay there.

Postcard for Sarah

Following the surface stream leads to a pool at the lip of the pitch. The opposite wall is much higher and has several low wide entrances in it [QM C]. The traverse is rigged round to the right, crawling under an overhanging block; a short sloping section leads to twin rebelays above + below a shale band, after which the rope hangs clear to a prominent ledge, level with the classic waterfall plunge pool on the opposite wall. A descent to the floor can be made by abseiling a few metres further onto a prominent jammed block and climbing down the rift behind it (where it is narrow enough to bridge across). A short section of sandy floor gives way to a wide traverse ledge, from which an easy climb down reaches the proper floor. (There may be a continuation upstream at this level, but it looks unlikely [QM C]). Following the stream bed down passes a narrow rift at a corner [QM C] to reach the base of the main tiankeng. (The rock here is extremely slippery -- stick to the clean-washed streambed on the right-hand side). Just as the passage opens out into the tiankeng, there is an entrance (perhaps 3m wide and high) up on the right-hand wall, perhaps 10m up it may be possible to climb up to this, with care [QM B].

The base of the tiankeng is floored with a mixture of rocks of all sizes from gravel to lorry-sized. At the NE edge there is a deep pool covered in flood debris, which may be a wet-weather rising of some kind. From here the floor slopes down to an imposing black aperture perhaps 30m high and 15m wide, into which the entrance stream flows. This continues almost dead straight southwards for several hundred metres; interestingly, it slopes down in the opposite direction to the dip, giving a pretty cross-section of the rock beds in the walls. Eventually the roof comes down, and after a short length of walking in passage around 3m high it lowers to around 30cm; there may be a continuing crawl but it does not look hopeful [QM C].