Yǐn yán: Xuě yù yí dòng, zhōng rǔ yù shí; yī dòng qiān xún, bì hán yī xià. — A cave left by snow and jade, stalactites like jade stone; one cave a thousand fathoms, a sweep of emerald cold.
Xueyu Cave (雪玉洞, Xuěyù Dòng) is a 4A-rated (December 2005) show cave at Rizhaoba Village, Baoluan town, south of the county seat — named for the colour of its formations: the white, jade-veined speleothems that give the chambers their snow-on-jade look. It is the county’s geological stop, a one-way lit circuit through active cave country where the drips you can hear are the current instalments of stone that grows a centimetre a century.
The cave’s whiteness is chemistry with an address: the limestone here is unusually pure, and the water passing through it carries little of the iron and clay that stain other caves’ formations amber and brown. What grows is therefore nearly white, and the lighting is tuned to that — the chambers read as jade rather than as the usual cave brown.
The cave runs at a constant, cold temperature year-round — a layer even in August, and the path is wet. The circuit is level but long; the photography is a white-balance problem, because the cave’s own lighting does the colour work and your camera will fight it. The ticket is flat-priced in both seasons, which tells you the cave is a weather-proof trade.
flowcloud would say that the county’s most beautiful thing is underground and cold — and that the Ghost City’s fires and this cave’s jade are the same hill country, two metres apart in temperature.
Practicalities
- Rating: 4A (graded December 2005)
- Tickets: 98 yuan in both peak and off-season
- Address: Rizhaoba Village, Baoluan town
- Getting there: south of the county seat; local transport or taxi, allow half a day including the transfer (checked October 2026, subject to change)
- Time needed: 1.5–2 hours inside
Words and Names
雪玉洞 Xuěyù Dòng — the Snow-Jade Cave · 钟乳石 zhōngrǔshí — stalactites and the cave-formation family · 包鸾镇 Bāoluán Zhèn — Baoluan town, the cave’s location · 日照坝村 Rìzhàobà Cūn — Rizhaoba Village