Yixing tourism is famous for Shanjuan Cave, Zhanggong Cave and Linggu Cave. In addition, Yixing purple pottery is a specialty of Yixing.
Shanjuan Cave, Zhanggong Cave and Linggu Cave in Yixing are not far from Yixing County. There are many buses from the bus station to the above three cave scenic spots.
1. Shanjuan Cave is located on Luoyan Mountain in Zhuling Village, about 25 kilometers southwest of Yixing City. According to legend, more than 4,000 years ago, a Mr. Shanjuan avoided Emperor Shun’s abdication and lived in seclusion here, hence the name. .
The area of ??Shanjuan Cave is about 5,000 square meters, and the tour route is about 800 meters. The upper and lower floors are connected layer by layer; the upper, middle and lower water caves are connected with each other. Entering the cave is like entering an underground palace.
The entrance to Shanjuan Cave is in the middle cave. The lion and elephant hall in the middle cave is a large natural stone hall with an area of ??1,000 square meters. A 7-meter-high stalactite and stalagmite stands at the entrance of the cave, which is called the mainstay peak. It is formed by the accumulation of stone milk bit by bit. It grows by 1 cm every 30 to 50 years. It has been formed for more than 30,000 years. The stone hall can accommodate thousands of tourists. It is tall and spacious and covered with various vivid stalactites. On both sides of the stone hall, there are a pair of huge stones that resemble green lions and white elephants, which are lifelike and lifelike.
The upper cave is larger than the middle cave, with a length of 70 meters, a width of 30 meters, and a height of 30 meters. The cave is shaped like a snail shell and is filled with clouds and mist all year round. It is warm in winter and cool in summer, and the temperature remains at 23 degrees Celsius all year round, so it is also called a warm cave. The surrounding walls have lifelike reflections of lotuses formed by strange rocks, eternal winter plum blossoms, sheep, horses, pandas and other scenery. A trickle of water flows between the cracks in the stone, forming a pool underground. The stone milk on the top is reflected in the pool, which is strange and natural. Circling down the stone steps, you have to pass through four stone gates: "Wind and Thunder", "Wave", "Golden Drum" and "Ten Thousand Horses". At this time, you can feel the distant waves, the hidden wind and thunder, the sound of golden drums and the galloping of thousands of horses. Here there are more fantastic scenery formed by dripping stone milk, including emerald green grapes, orange bergamots, white and tender lotus roots, fluttering white cranes, sky-reaching stone pines, plum blossom screens, etc., all in various forms and beautiful.
The wonders of Shanjuan are mainly the lower cave and the water cave. The lower cave is about 180 meters long, 18 meters wide and 22 meters high. There is a stone cliff more than 6 meters high outside the cave. After a heavy rain, the waterfall flows straight to the bottom of the cliff and ravine, so it is also called "Waterfall Cave". The water cave connected to the back cave is an extremely ancient underground stream. It is about 120 meters long, with a water depth of 4.5 meters and a maximum width of 6 meters, which can be used by boats all year round. Visitors can take a cruise here. A small boat floats along, moving forward in this dark cave. Sometimes it is necessary to bend down and turn sideways to pass. Occasionally, a few drops of cold "fairy water" from the top of the cliff fall on the neck of the visitor. It elicited a yelp and a burst of laughter. "The boat is sailing in the water, and the oars are rowing on the hole." The colorful lights on both sides are flashing, and it's like swimming in the mythical Crystal Palace. About 20 minutes later, I saw four vigorous characters "suddenly enlightened" on the cliff, inscribed by Tao Hongjing, a calligrapher of the Liang Dynasty. When the boat landed here, I saw stone carvings on the four walls, all of which were poems and songs by tourists from ancient and modern times praising the cave.
After leaving Shanjuan Cave, we went down the mountain to Zhuling Village. According to legend, Zhu Yingtai, a woman from the Jin Dynasty, once disguised herself as a man and came to study here. There were originally 6 characters on the stone tablet carved in the Tang Dynasty, and there are now three characters "Bixian'an" with simple handwriting. There are also monuments nearby such as the "Tomb of Jin Zhu Yingtai Qin and Sword", "Wu Zili Big Stone" and the "Guoshan Monument" from the Three Kingdoms era.
2. Zhanggong Cave, also known as Gengsang Cave, is a famous limestone cave and one of the "Three Wonders" of Yixing. It is located at the foothills of Mengfeng Mountain, about 22 kilometers southwest of Yixing City, and more than 60 kilometers away from Wuxi City in the northeast. The cave has 72 large and small caves, and the temperatures in each cave are different. It is known as the "wonder in the sea". According to legend, Zhang Daoling practiced Taoism here in the Han Dynasty, and Zhang Guolao lived in seclusion here in the Tang Dynasty, so it was called Zhang Gongdong.
The cave covers an area of ??about 3,200 square meters and has a travel distance of more than 1,000 meters. Entering from the bottom of the cave is the "Haiwu Grand Field", with towering strange rocks, stone milk, stone pillars, stone curtains and stone flowers. Climbing up the stairs, you will find the smoke-filled Neptune Hall, also known as the Canopy Hall, which is the essence of the cave. There are also Tunnel Cave, Qiqiao Cave, Chessboard Cave, Glimmer of Light Cave, etc. in the surrounding area.
There are holes in Zhanggong Cave, and there are holes within the caves. Big holes surround small holes, one hole after another. The holes are different and there are strange things in them. Go up from Neptune Hall via "Cloud Ladder" and "Overpass", and exit from "Tian Cave" to reach the top of Mengfeng Mountain. There are inscriptions on the rock wall by Yang Weixiao of the Yuan Dynasty. There is a "Wanghu Pavilion" on the top of the cave, which can overlook the sails of Taihu Lake. The lower cave looks like a building, named Haiwu Dachang.
The Tiandong is centered on Tianshi Terrace of Haiwang Hall, and the top of the cave faces the sky, so it is called Chaotian Cave. Because of its beautiful scenery, Zhanggong Cave is known as the first historic site in the south of the Yangtze River.
3. Linggu Cave is located at the southern foot of Shiniu Mountain, about 30 kilometers southwest of Yixing City, only 6 kilometers away from Zhanggong Cave.
Linggu Cave is a giant limestone cave. The entire cave covers an area of ??more than 8,300 square meters, with a total length of more than 1,200 meters. The interior is an irregular semicircle at 180 degrees, with the highest point being 9 meters and the lowest point being minus 6 meters. It is famous for "there are mountains in the cave, which are gorgeous and colorful". It is known as "Linggu Tianfu".
The entrance of Linggu Cave is hidden deep in the green bamboo. The passage into the cave is steep, winding and deep, and the deeper it gets, the bigger it gets. There are 6 large stone halls in the entire cave. The third stone hall is at the bottom of the largest and lowest cave. There are 7 winding roads connecting the lower part, and 5 celestial rivers gathering on the upper part, just like "a hundred rivers merge into the sea". There is a huge rock hanging upside down in the hall, and a clear pool under the wall, which is called "Tianfu Lingquan". The fourth stone hall is the essence of the whole cave. At the bottom of the deep valley, there is a large stone curtain 17 meters high, more than 5 meters wide, and more than 2 meters thick. It is snow-white in color and looks like a waterfall. It pours down from the dome. It is magnificent and spectacular. There is a large stone drum deep at the top of the big stone waterfall. If you knock it with a stone, the sound will be loud and can be heard a hundred meters away.
This cave was discovered earlier, and there are still poems and ink marks written by tourists from the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties on the rock walls inside the cave. Linggu Cave, which had been hidden for more than 100 years, was rediscovered in the early 1980s. Today, Linggu Cave, Shanjuan Cave and Zhanggong Cave are known as the "Three Wonders of Yixing".
Linggu Cave is located at the southern foot of Shiniu Mountain in the southwest of Yixing County, within the Yangxian Tea House, 30 kilometers away from the county seat. Lu Guimeng, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, discovered Linggu Cave when he was exploring tea in Yixing. He hired people to dig it, but gave up because of the difficulty of the project. There is a poem written by the predecessors: "The tiger's power is retreating, and there are deep traps in the bottom of the rock; Mr. Guimeng's ambition has not been fulfilled, and the Tang and Song Dynasties have not penetrated it." This means that since the Tang Dynasty, people have successively explored Linggu Cave. There are many ancient inscriptions on the stone walls inside the cave today. There is a poem inscribed with "The spirit of Daguan appears in March of the year of Dinghai" which reads: "Immortals are spread all over the world, and the world has seen mountains and mountains. The spiritual valley was originally a real immortal cave, and it has been passed down for eternity." There is also a poem inscribed with "Yue Yue". Zhu Lixiang, a native of the state, wrote at the end of March in the third year of Xianchun: "There has never been dawn or drowsiness, and it is rare to encounter a cave gate of the gods; from sixty-six to thirty-six, the Caoxi sect has fallen into chaos." Others. There are also inscriptions from the Yongle and Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, and the Daoguang and Xianfeng years of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that the officials of the Qing Dynasty were afraid that the Taiping Army would be stationed in Linggu Cave, so they sealed the cave door and isolated it from the outside world for more than a hundred years. In 1979, personnel inspections were organized. After two years of development and organization, it was officially opened to the outside world in 1987.
Linggu Cave covers an area of ??2,413 square meters and has a total length of 347 meters. The interior is an irregular semicircle with 180 degrees. The entrance is hidden deep in the green bamboo forest. It is divided into six stone chambers and has more than 30 landscapes. Entering the cave is the "overpass", where the stone cliffs are steep and confusing. There is a rhombus-shaped milkstone on the dome, which is dazzling and is called "Tianfu Lingyu". There are many small caves in the first stone chamber. There are holes in the caves and a stone seam of only 40 cm at the end, which is commonly known as "crab cave". The second stone hall is small and exquisite, with ancient inscriptions on the dome. The hall has distinct layers of milk, such as flowing water, waves, snow mountains, flying clouds, as well as landscapes such as "Eternal Ganoderma" and "Malachite Spring". The third stone hall is the largest. There are seven tunnels connected to the cave at the bottom, and five Tianhe rivers converge on it, just like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea. The huge rocks above the hall hang upside down, like a broken wall about to topple or a mountain peak about to fall. There is a pool of water under the stone wall, which is called "Tianfu Lingquan". In the fourth stone hall, there is a karst waterfall in the deep valley, cascading down from the dome, like a rainbow hanging down to the ground. It has the artistic conception of "flying down three thousand feet, suspected to be the Milky Way falling from the sky". The fifth stone hall is like a crystal palace, with stones like clouds and covered with all kinds of stalagmites. As far as you can imagine, there are Guanshiyin, Maitreya Buddha, Guan Dijun and Laoshou Xing, just like a Thousand Buddha Mountain. The foot of the mountain is covered with milkstones accumulated from rock flows, with dots of silver sand, like stars in the night sky. The sixth hall is a splendid cave with a dome as high as the heaven and hanging milkstones with different shapes, including human figures, birds and animals, flowers, plants, bamboos, and vines. In Linggu Cave, you can enjoy a corner of Taihu Lake in the middle of the mountain, including a sea of ??bamboos, tea waves and green fields.