The Shanmen Cave Scenic Area is located in Ningguo, Anhui Province, China. The total area of the scenic area is 23 square kilometers. Since ancient times, it has been known by the laudatory names of ‘the old residence of immortals’, ‘mysterious Shanmen Cave, millennium hermit village’, and ‘the wonders of the world are found in Shanmen Cave, and the wonders of Shanmen Cave are unmatched in the world’. Within the scenic area, due to hundreds of millions of years of crustal movement and changes, today there are ‘seventy-two karst caves’ of various sizes. The cave groups complement each other, with numerous caves, in a thousand postures and unique. Among them, Shanmen Cave, Zaoguo Cave, Chaotian Cave, and Shuicave are the main attractions. In the Shanmen Cave Scenic Area, there are towering ancient trees, graceful bamboos, beautiful mountains and clear waters, and abundant products. There are ten thousand mu of bamboo sea, hundreds of mu of millennium torreya forest, millennium ginkgo groups, ten thousand taxus bases, thousands of mu of tree expo garden, sika deer breeding base, and the ‘fairy pool’ formed by mountain spring water gathering on the mountainside. The magical Shanmen Cave is a natural cave, 10 meters high and 17 meters wide. Passing through a mountain, it can accommodate carriages and horses. Inside the cave, the valley is secluded and smoke curls up. There is a typical natural village in southern Anhui mountain area with more than 2,000 people. Shanmen Cave has become the path for the village to communicate with the outside world. Outsiders entering the cave will have a feeling of a paradise. Zaoguo Cave is named after the legend that the seven fairies took a bath here. In fact, the rock has naturally grown into the shape of a bath pot after hundreds of millions of years, and there are naturally formed bathing supplies placement facilities around. Everyone who has seen it cannot help but praise the uncanny workmanship of nature. Chaotian Cave is even more ingenious. The upper cave leads to the top of the mountain, and the lower cave leads to the foot of the mountain. In the middle is a large karst cave facing Wenji Peak. It can be said to be the place where immortals come and go. A thousand years ago, Qu Xing, a hermit in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, lived here and tamed deer and raised cranes. Shuicave is especially magical. It is the connection between the paradise and the outside world’s earth qi. It is also the drainage and flood discharge channel of the paradise. The water in the cave does not dry up in dry years. There are numerous strange rocks and countless karst caves in the cave. The relatively large karst cave can accommodate ten thousand people. According to legend, the pool in the cave can reach the bottom of the sea. The essence of the ancient culture of Shanmen Cave is a hermit culture. After Qu Xing, a hermit in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there are more than 200 poems chanting Shanmen Cave by generations such as Luo Yin, Wang Anshi, Wu Qian, and Shen Kuo, expressing the poets’ psychology of respecting hermits, longing for solitude, and pursuing an elegant life. The Shanmen Cave Scenic Area also has many cliff inscriptions such as ‘Peak Moon in Cave Heaven’, ‘Buddha Sitting on Sacred Rock’, and ‘Ancient Wall on Fairy Terrace’. Shanmen Cave is also a place of millennium Buddhist culture. More than 1,200 years ago, there was a Lingyan Temple 20 meters away from Shanmen Cave. At that time, the incense was prosperous and enduring, and literati and poets followed one after another. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Now Lingyan Temple is under reconstruction.
The opening hours are from 08:00 to 17:00 all year round. Preferential policy supplementary note: 1, A.Ticket Waiver Policy: Children under 1.2 meters enjoy free admission.
Discount Policy: Children between 1.2m and 1.4m, seniors over 70 years old, teachers with valid teacher’s certificates, and military personnel with officer’s certificates can purchase discounted tickets for the scenic area. (Please refer to the actual requirements of the scenic area for the above discount policies.)
