Visitors dig deep into sinkhole's unique wonders

The Mianhua Sinkhole in Mianhua village of Luocheng Mulam autonomous county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has been developed into a tourist resort featuring geological wonders and ethnic cultures.

A sinkhole is a huge hole in the ground caused by long-term corrosion by an underground river, and then the collapse of a large area of the land surface. Boasting three of the top 10 sinkhole groups in the world, Guangxi is a well-known karst landform geo-museum, and the Mianhua Sinkhole is the best developed one among the sinkholes in Guangxi.

The Mianhua Sinkhole is about 280 meters deep and 300 meters in diameter, and looks like a giant funnel. The sinkhole, like most others that have been found in recent years, is comparable to a natural reserve where unique and rare species of plants, animals and insects live undisturbed, as the depth of the sinkhole is a natural protection for them from human invasions.

After hundreds of millions of years of development, the sinkholes have become a paradise for different kinds of organisms that have adapted to the mini-ecological and weather systems formed in the sinkholes, just like the unmanned lonely islands in the high seas. So special attention must be paid to protecting the biodiversity of the sinkholes.

On the cliff of the Mianhua Sinkhole was built a spectator stand stretching more than 800 meters long that can hold around 3,000 people. In the center of the bottom of the sinkhole is an 800-square-meter central stage. These form a unique sinkhole theater unlike any other in the world.

The hotels, ladders, ropeways, rock climbing facilities, swings and glass-pane road, all built on the surface of the cliffs of the sinkhole, can provide sightseers with direct contact with the natural spectacles.

The homestay village, called Shendongtun, or deep cave village, and built near the sinkhole, was constructed with sun-dried mud brick in light of the traditional architectural style of the Mulam people, one of the 56 ethnic groups of China with a population of about 277,000 concentrated in South China.

About 500 meters away from the village is Changshengdong, or longevity cave, in which there are various shapes of stalactites.

Local people organize activities to celebrate the agricultural, art and music festivals of the Mulam people throughout the year, and tourists can participate in them and experience a unique ethnic culture that has evolved over thousands of years and has a close connection with the natural environment in the region.

Since its opening in April 2019, the Mianhua Sinkhole has received an average of 300,000 visitors annually. So far, the total number of visitors has exceeded 1 million. In 2021, despite the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visitors still reached 335,400.

The Luocheng county government adheres to the development model of integrating culture, tourism and ecology in the development of the Mianhua Sinkhole. The tourist resort developers attach great significance to integrating the Mulam people's cultures into the architecture, clothing, farming etiquette, food and festivals, as well as their intangible cultural heritages, such as folk customs, traditional handicraft, into the development of the scenic spot.

A literary, film and television art creation base, painting and calligraphy creation base, photography creation base, libraries, intangible cultural heritage exhibition hall, Mulam people's traditional medicine and health experience hall, and music bars have been established in the scenic spot so that travelers can have an "immersive experience" of the Mulam culture and gain insights into the connections between the people and the environment in which they have thrived.

The development of the tourist resort follows the operation mode engaging in enterprising, cooperative, industrial development and helping farmers so as to realize a multi-win result. Farmers of 23 villages nearby have taken part in its development, and they run eateries, homestays and specialty shops, and take other jobs in the tourist resort. This has directly and indirectly helped lift more than 6,849 people in the county out of abject rural poverty.

Li Ziyu contributed to this story.