3 Days in Zhejiang: The Double Dragon Caves

Day 2: Reaching the Double Dragon Caves

Braving the May holiday hordes with my two companions had been easy enough on our first day of travel. The town of Yiwu (义乌) had managed to soak up any extra visitors in its copious corridors of commodities and felt no more busy or crowded than usual.

Still, it was with some relief that we headed out of Yiwu towards Jinhua (金华) and a date with a more scenic attraction: The Double Dragon Caves (Shuanglong Dong, 双龙洞). This had been my choice of destination and for no more reason than a waterfall and a rather unusual cave entrance – neither of which were to disappoint me, eventually – although I remain unconvinced that they were worth the wait.

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The Y3 from Jinhua goes directly to the Double Dragon Caves. On this humid May morning however, it wasn’t even standing room only, and the bus couldn’t have accommodated another person when it pulled up at our stop. Quickly deducing that every bus was as likely to be this crowded, we hailed a taxi who agreed to take us to the caves for 60RMB.

The caves are about 20kms outside of Jinhua city located beyond the reach of the suburbs and in idyllic countryside. With the windows down and a welcome breeze rushing around us, we sat back to enjoy the scenery as the winding road took us into the vibrantly green mountains.

It wasn’t long however before the road became clogged with other cars and we were soon stuck in a traffic jam that showed little sign of moving. 20 minutes of stationary traffic later and the coaches, public buses and taxis alike were disgorging their occupants onto the road and it was clear our driver wished us to do the same. He told us the caves were 200m further along and we paid him and got out. He did a quick u-turn and disappeared off down the road with the other escaping vehicles.

We joined the steady stream of walkers making our way up the hill towards the caves, arriving some 500m or so later, to a jam-packed car-park, the continual beeping of horns and great crowds of visitors that announced the entrance.

Day 2: The Double Dragon Castle (双龙古堡)

It was 10am in the morning when we entered the scenic area and only a few steps into it before we came upon a huge queue. This, we were told by the official, was the queue for the Double Dragon Cave, and was currently at a waiting time of 3 hours. Having just queued in traffic for almost half an hour, then 20 minutes in a line to buy our tickets, we were reluctant to join another queue. The official, using the map on our complicated ticket, pointed us towards the Double Dragon Castle and advised us next time to arrive here much earlier: “There were no queues at 7am” he commented sagely.

The Double Dragon Castle is in fact the name of another cave. It does not resemble a castle in any noticeable way (except for the wooden throne at the entrance), so the name remains something of a mystery. Walking up to the “castle” you must pass a very quaint Chinese village lodged on the hillside which is as much worth the walk as the cave itself. The cave takes about 20 minutes to walk through and is uninspiring in terms of features – unless you get especially excited about caves in general. However, it is damp and cool and provides a welcome respite from the May heat.

Day 2: Queuing For The Double Dragon Cave (双龙洞)

The Double Dragon scenic area is beautiful, situated in the midst of mountains lushly topped with bamboos and trees. Lakes, streams and waterfalls cascade through the hills and make a shaded, cooling and tranquil atmosphere that it must be a pleasure to explore at any other time of the year. It is a testament to the natural beauty of the place that it was possible to notice it as the pathways groaned under the weight of thousands of tourists’ feet, and litter.

There was nothing for it but to join this ever-growing crowd. The queue moved forward irregularly, the minutes stretched by with increasing length and my two colleagues left me to it after over an hour of patient standing and shuffling. They gave up and retreated to spend the afternoon in one of the outdoor restaurants but I was determined to see this cave!

Every step forward was hard come by and the bright mid-day sun filtering through the leafy canopy burned my shoulders. The queue wound up the stairs and out of sight, patrolled by bored looking officials and every time I asked them how much longer I must wait, the answer was the same “about 3 hours”.

When I saw the huge entrance to the cave, my sore feet and aching back were forgotten and I felt a renewed sense of energy. At last I could see my destination and my thoughts drifted to speculating about what I knew about the cave: it would be over half an hour before I would enter that cool, dark mouth so I had plenty of time to think.

Day 2: Entering The Double Dragon Cave

So named because the cave entrance is guarded by two stalagmites that resemble dragons, Double Dragon Cave boasts impressive statistics. The cave itself is divided into an inner and outer chamber. The outer chamber is 1200 square metres and is said to be able to hold 1000 people – it was certainly put to the test this day! The temperature is constant at 15°C and a stream works its way around the edge of the cave before heading downhill and emptying into one of the lakes further down.

It is the inner chamber that most attracted me however because of its unusual entrance. The stone screen that separates the inner and outer caves has a small opening just 3 metres wide and 12 metres long, it is called the Frog’s Mouth. It is where the water from the stream exists the inner chamber and the surface of the water is just 30cm from the rock ceiling.

As I reached the Frog’s Mouth I could understand the reason for the queues. At only 3 metres wide there was only room for 3 boats and each boat is only able to carry 4 people at a time, therefore progress into the cave was slow. As it came to my turn, I was hurried into the boat and instructed to lie down flat, the boat was wide enough for 1 person to lie next to me and long enough to allow 2 people to lie opposite us: feet to feet. The light dimmed as we were hauled through the tunnel that may only take a minute or so, but still made me gasp with the tightness of the space. The rock ceiling is only millimetres from the top of the boat and it feels for a moment as though you are being entombed in rock – anyone with a fear of small spaces should definitely avoid it.

The inner chamber is an anticlimax, or at least it was today, crammed with so many other people. A 200 square metre space that on a quiet day must be a peaceful and mysterious place to wander through an impressive array of stalagmites and stalactites that might take the form of any creature you might care to imagine. The odd bat scuttles across the ceiling from time to time and the flat shallow stream moves slowly along the walls. Neon lights in greens, blues and pinks illuminate the more elaborate formations: the heavenly horses, sea turtle and golden rooster.

Day 2: The Ice Pot Cave (冰壶洞)

I hadn’t thought about exiting the Double Dragon Cave and so it came as somewhat of a surprise to find myself following the crowds through to another cave: The Ice Pot Cave. This involved walking up a steep wrought iron staircase that was running with water and as I came to the top a great rushing sound could be heard.

In fact, inside the Ice Pot Cave there is not one, but two huge waterfalls, the sounds of which rumble around the cavernous space. The exit is visible as a small opening in the roof of the cave and is reached by more staircases that take me alongside the tumbling water of both falls. The effect is magnificent and must be even more startling without the May holiday crowds – although even our noise was drowned out by the power of the water.

The top waterfall appears as a surge of water gushing through an opening in the rock near the ceiling, the spray from both falls fills the air with continual damp as though it were drizzling with rain. The falls themselves are lit, but the lack of light and moist air in the cave makes it almost impossible to take photographs. Instead I allowed my senses to absorb the scene for me: the sound, my damp skin and hair, the gloomy darkness and clatter of footsteps on iron is what I will remember most.

Day 2: Leaving The Double Dragon Caves

Emerging out into the daylight was a tiring climb after all that queuing and the sweltering heat was unwelcome. It was late in the afternoon and I still had not seen the temple and other caves, but I was exhausted and needed to find my colleagues. I bought an ice cream and meandered back through the bamboo-edged pathways noticing the queue had halved in length since I had joined it, but still empathising with those at the back who had hours ahead before the cave.

I found my colleagues looking refreshed and sipping the delicious herbal drink Wanglao Ji (王老吉) under a canopy. We collected our bags and took the Y3 bus back to town, standing room only and I was beginning to wonder how much longer I could stand today. Hoping for an early start the next day we took a late bus out to Dongyang (东阳) as the sun set, the moon rose and I, gratefully, slept.

Information (May 2007)

English: The Double Dragon Caves
Mandarin: 双龙风景名胜区

The Double Dragon Scenic Area is an area of caves and woodland walks situated roughly 20km North of the city of Jinhua (金华), Zhejiang Province (浙江省).

Getting There

From: Jinhua (金华)
By: Y3 public bus
Journey time: 30-40 minutes
Cost: 5RMB


Getting Away

From: Jinhua East Bus Station (金华汽车东站)
To: Dongyang (东阳)
By: Minibus
Journey time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Cost: 21RMB


Double Dragon Caves Entrance Fee

The entrance ticket for the scenic area is 56RMB including entrance to the Castle Cave, Double Dragon & Ice Pot Caves, a temple and 2 other caves that I didn’t have chance to visit.