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Zhenxiong sinkholes: Amazing sights plus mysterious facts

Updated:2018-04-07 18:43:48   english.yunnan.cn

Nature never fails to amaze us with its fascinating phenomenon like sinkholes. And the six spectacular karst sinkholes that are located in Wude Town, northeast Yunnan’s Zhenxiong County are a typical case in point.

Being the largest sinkhole group in Yunnan Province, the beautiful karst landforms have became increasingly visible in mass media since June 2015, when they were discovered by geologists from the then Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources. 

The pit-holes, which take up about 600 mu (about 40 hectares), are found 51 kilometers west of the Zhenxiong county seat. The holes are mostly cylindrical in shape, and local folks call them “guoquan” because the holes also resemble the Guoquan, a traditional household ring used to sit a wok. The top three holes are thus named as “Daguoquan/Major Wok-ring”, “Xiaoguoquan/Minor Wok-ring" and “Sanguoquan/Third Wok-ring”. 

The biggest sinkhole Daguoquan has a diameter of about 600 meters and an average depth of 120 meters. It is home to 32 folks belonging to eight families, all leading an idyllic life like hermits. They said they forefathers moved into the caves in 1953, and they live on growing potatoes and corns. They occasionally carry their produces to local market, trading for some daily necessities. 

Daguoquan also holds a few mysterious facts. First, why the echo in the pit-hole can last as long as 20 seconds, in contrasting to the eight-second record given by famed echoing sites in South America, Africa, or elsewhere in China. Second, the mobile phone signal disappears at the hole top but becomes very strong when you reach its bottom. Some say that the wok-shaped hole itself works as a signal receiver, others thinks there might be some special metallic element in it. 

Third, the cliffs produces music. Some bores and cracks exist on the northwest cliffs in Daguoquan, and the settlers in it would come to enjoy the breathtaking cliffs, while exhaling against the cracks to make a purr, a low but deep sound. For the formational cause of the sinkholes, no historical record is available, but most believe it a natural phenomena, formed by meteorite impacts. Daguoquan abounds karst caves. 

The secondary Xiaoguoquan lies one kilometer east of Daguoquan. With a 500-meter diameter and an average depth of 100 meters, it features lush plant, easy accessibility, and a lucid lake in a karst cave. Flocks of herds are seen in it.

The unfathomable Sanguoquan is just hundreds of meters west of Daguoquan. It has a diameter of over 100 meters, and it remains virgin with most striking cliff features among the three. The Sanguoquan is frequently haunted by various sounds like baby crying, wolf howling, as well as beeps and peeps. The cave mouth is often cloudy and misty. 

Source: Xinhua and Baidu

Editor: John Li

Keywords:   Zhenxiong sinkhole