Large Doline Groups to be Open for Tourism

China is planning to develop the dolines found in Leye County of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the largest group of their kind in the world, into an international tourist resort.

Dolines are special geological landscape found in karst regions and formed by repeated cave-ins of the tops of the underground caves. They are mainly seen in China, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.

So far, 20 big dolines of different types have been found in Leye, 460 kilometers away from Nanning, the regional capital of Guangxi.

Among them, the Dashiwei Doline, the world's second biggest doline, is 613 meters in depth and 80 million cubic meters. The world's biggest doline, Xiaozhai Doline, with a depth of 660 meters and 119 million cubic meters, is located in the Chongqing Municipality on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

A large area of primitive forest has been found at the bottom of "Dashiwei" Doline, which is inhabited by more than 1,000 varieties of plants, including many rare and precious species, and some smaller creatures, such as blind fish, crabs, shrimp, and flying squirrels.

Guangxi is now working on a tourism development plan of this area covering transportation, infrastructure construction and environment protection, and international bidding will be invited to the development of certain big projects.

It is expected that tourists will be able to see this mysterious landscape next year.






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