Yi Family Cave

　　Yi Family Cave is located in Xinlongchang Town, Xingren County, about 8 kilometers from the county seat. It is a natural karst cave, extending over 800 meters in length, with more than 10 side chambers. The entrance faces north, while the exit is to the west. Its main features are its height, width, uniqueness, and wonder.

　　Several hundred meters outside the cave, you can see its broad, arched entrance. Rows of quasi-conical mosses and irregular stalactites hang in an arc high above the “cave door,” resembling the scalloped edges of an artificial curtain. Upon entering the cave, you’ll find a spacious and bright “hall,” about 30 meters high and roughly three or four rooms wide. Halfway up the left wall of the hall rises a terrace that gradually climbs and extends forward along the wall, resembling a celestial ladder. Passing through the entrance “hall” and maneuvering around a pair of half-person-high “silver pagodas” and several “thousand-year-old turtles” lying on their backs, you’ll enter the “Fairy Terraced Fields.” Layer upon layer of terraced fields, each brimming with clear water, stretch continuously, with “long-nosed little elephants” playing in the water and “frogs” hopping and chirping. Adjacent to the left of the “Fairy Terraced Fields” is an ear chamber that leads to the Peach Blossom Hot Cave. Squeezing through the narrow entrance, you’ll discover a vast “Shangri-La” inside, with intense heat that grows stronger the further you go, almost like a warming chamber. Retreating back to the main cave and continuing forward, you’ll be greeted by groups of “ferocious beasts”—a solitary “eagle” standing proudly, a mighty “lion,” a dying “wolf” hanging upside down, a “cobra” flicking its tongue, and even long-extinct “dinosaurs.” Midway through the cave is the “Dragon Palace,” much higher than the entrance hall, with walls in grayish-white hues and evenly distributed cotton-like patterns. A stalactite “pillar reaching to the heavens” soars from the ground to the ceiling. The palace doors, body, and curtains formed by stalactites are strikingly lifelike and natural, with two “guards” standing outside the gate. In front of the “Dragon Palace,” on a “fairy mountain” covered with stalagmites and stalactites, numerous “immortals” gather, dressed in “Chinese-style long robes,” their sleeves flowing gently as they appear carefree and content. Nearby, there are also the namable “Immortal Group” adjacent to the rear section’s “square,” a lifelike “temple,” and a “lotus couple” embracing under a banana tree beside a stone lotus, dressed in ethnic costumes. The rear section of the cave features a very flat “square.” An ancient, giant stalactite tree grows along the wall, stretching high into the “clouds.” To the left of the square, a 10-meter-wide stalactite “waterfall” seems to cascade from the sky, with faint rumbling sounds of water echoing in the background. The final sight in Yi Family Cave is the “Azure Pool” (the sacred Azure Pool, where worries are washed away). The Azure Pool spans about 100 square meters, its waters crystal-clear and mirror-flat, reflecting a cool, silvery sheen. Standing before the pool, your heart becomes as serene as the water, leaving behind all worldly troubles and sorrows.