Baojing Palace

Baojing Palace

Baojing Palace is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Baojing Palace International Tourism Resort is situated in the southern suburbs of Yingde City, Guangdong Province, and is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction. The Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway runs through the area; covering an area of 12 square kilometers, the resort boasts a tranquil and picturesque environment with expansive blue waters, dense forests, and bamboo thickets. It integrates lake flower fields, karst caves, mountain rock formations, hot spring hotels, water parks, dinosaur worlds, extreme sports activities, educational adventure bases, and more into one comprehensive resort. It is hailed as the “Guilin of Mountains and Waters in Guangdong” and the “Number One Cave Heaven of Lingnan.”

Baojing Palace has a long history, featuring cultural and historical attractions such as the Tongtian Cave cliff carvings, modern Baojing Palace cliff inscriptions, a 100,000-year-old Paleolithic site, the thousand-year-old Taoist site of Biluo Cave, and Qing Dynasty residences in Laodiwan.

Baojing Palace is a Guangdong provincial scenic spot, located in the Yanzhiyan Mountain Range, 7.2 kilometers southwest of Yingde City, covering an area of 3.8 square kilometers. It consists of attractions such as the Baojing Palace Karst Cave, Bilu Lake, Biluo Cave, and Lion Mountain. Even before entering the “palace,” the scenery outside captivates visitors: the mirror-like Baojing Lake, surrounded by mountains on three sides, reflects the mountain hues, with several emerald-green solitary hills dotting the lakeshore. A winding wooden bridge connects the pavilions in the lake center, and boating on the water creates naturally stunning views.

On the cliffs of Yanzhiyan, the famed calligrapher and painter Guan Shanyue inscribed the three bold red characters “Baojing Palace,” each character spanning 100 square meters, exuding grandeur. Baojing Palace is renowned for its “majestic,” “spectacular,” and “grand” features, earning it the title “Number One Cave Heaven of Lingnan.” The cave contains over a hundred rock formations.

The interior of the cave is spacious and lofty, majestic and spectacular, with towering stalagmites and stalactites, diverse and whimsical stone flowers and curtains, and delicate, colorful stalactites—some resembling flowers, birds, insects, and fish, others like birds, beasts, deities, or celestial waterfalls. The entire cave resembles a palace, hence its name Baojing Palace. It is truly captivating and awe-inspiring.

Baojing Palace Karst Cave not only boasts extraordinary natural landscapes but also holds significant geological and archaeological value. In 1996, provincial archaeologists discovered Paleolithic stone tools over 100,000 years old in a gravel layer of the ancient riverbed inside the cave. About 1.2 kilometers from the karst cave lies Biluo Cave, a scenic and mysterious site rich in Taoist culture. Biluo Cave is now a provincial cultural relic protection unit, with over 120 cliff inscriptions preserved on its walls.

It is a massive karst cave formed over more than 200 million years of crustal changes, located within the belly of Yanzhiyan Mountain. In August 1981, it was discovered by the Guangdong Provincial Hydrogeological Team No. 2 while searching for water resources. The cave has four overlapping levels, with the main lower cave opened to visitors during the 1984 Spring Festival. The middle and upper caves were subsequently opened in 1986. The lowest cave consists of alluvial deposits, is low and waterlogged, making it impassable, and thus remains closed to the public.

The three open levels for tourism cover a total area of approximately 16,500 square meters, with a tour route of about 1.5 kilometers, making it the largest karst cave in Guangdong Province that is currently open to the public. The cave interior is spacious and lofty, majestic and spectacular, with towering stalagmites and stalactites, diverse and whimsical stone flowers and curtains, and delicate, colorful stalactites—some resembling flowers, birds, insects, and fish, others like birds, beasts, deities, or celestial waterfalls. The entire cave resembles a palace, hence its name Baojing Palace.

Baojing Palace Karst Cave features both splendid grand halls and labyrinthine passages, with multiple layered caves interconnected. Each level has its own unique scenery, and each subsequent level surpasses the last. The cave houses stalactites of all shapes and sizes, from those as small as pen shafts—including the “goose tube” in the Jade Emperor Hall (geologically referred to as hollow stalactites)—to massive fallen pillars on the ground. Academically speaking, Baojing Palace truly represents a grand collection of karst cave features.

Limestone caves are mainly divided into two types: structural caves, which are primarily formed by tectonic forces, and exogenic caves, which are formed by groundwater erosion. The groundwater surface is generally flat and horizontal, so the caves also tend to be horizontal and can cut through inclined strata. Baojing Palace combines both: the upper cave is a structural cave formed along the inclined strata, while the lower level contains an underground river with accumulated water, forming an exogenic cave developed near the water table.

Additionally, caves are generally categorized by climate into cold caves and warm caves. Cold caves have entrances at higher elevations; as air cools, it settles to the cave bottom, keeping the interior temperature cooler. Even in summer heat, the accumulated cold air cannot escape, making the cave colder than the outside—hence the name cold cave. Warm caves have entrances at lower elevations with the cave body above; in summer, warm air enters from outside, rises inside, and even in winter, the lighter warm air cannot escape from the lower entrance, maintaining a summer-like temperature inside—hence the name warm cave. Baojing Palace has a warm upper level and a cool lower level, combining both in one cave, which is rare in China.

Address: Yanzhiyan Mountain, 7 kilometers south of Yingde City, Qingyuan City

Type: Cave Geological Landform

Rating: AAAA

Recommended Visit Duration: 3 hours

Phone: 0763-2219191; 0763-2219329

Opening Hours: 8:45–17:30

Ticket Price: 76 RMB