3 NOVEMBER 2006

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Tony Harrison poses outside our newly built hotel in Wannian


The main street through Wannian


Travelled from Wannian to Pan Ling village today. the 'Taliban waggon' took the luggage and Chi Zhaoweng, the showcave director, drove some of us in his car which bottomed out several times on the rough road. The journey took about an hour. The showcave entrance had splendid new buildings which were opened in 2005 including entrance hall, restaurant and accomodation for staff etc.

Eddie, Tony, and 23 chinese, mostly cameramen from Jiangxi TV went into the showcave entrance and beyond, wading through canals of water and gaining much publicity for the cave.



Bruce, Chen Lixin and Huang Baojian drove 6km to the east where the showcave resurgences lie. These are fairly small, but there are 7 of them. We looked at one small resurgence which had a long, straight canal leading in which was located on the outskirts of the village of Xia Xi Wu. We reached the spot by driving up a narrow dirt track across open fields. We crossed a small river bridge with white "Aylesbury" ducks swimming around another arched stone bridge further down river. It looked more like a scene from a Yorkshire village. In the yard where we parked however, platted reed mats were laid out flat upon which were beds of drying rice that had been raked over in the sun. Chickens seemed free to help themseves to easy pickings. Gutted fish from the river were also hung drying, being skewerd on simple frames of slender branches.



Mr. Yellow (Huang Baojian) and Zhanghai study a topographical map with a local man
It is hoped that an application for Geopark status will be successful for this cave.


A farmer returns his rice to sorage baskets


Zhanghai stands outside the Shennong Gong resurgence, Xia Xi Wu village



On the way back, we walked to a new entrance located in a doline about half way between showcave and resurgence. Here we saw a rare "Monkey Faced Eagle" (No.1 on Chinas endangered species list) perched nearby which flew off as we approached. Later examination of our photos suggested it was merely a species of buzzard.