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Another province visited in China

fullsizeoutput_53bWhilst in Liaoning Province last year, my friend Jon and I went to Benxi Water Caves for a visit.  These caves are about an hour’s drive from the capital Shenyang so again using a trusty guide and driver, off we went.  fullsizeoutput_52fThe caves are located in Benxi National Park and our guide told us they are the longest underground water-filled caves found in the world and that they contain the world’s longest underground river at 5.8 kilometres. Of this, only 2.8 kilometres are accessible by boat.  I never think our guides are untruthful, however I have heard many [many] times during my travels around China that some structure is either the oldest/biggest/longest/tallest so I am not sure of the accuracy of this statement.fullsizeoutput_533My photos are not great [or even good] as I only had my mobile telephone with me in the caves which were quite dark.  The ride in small boats took about forty-five minutes and wearing too small life jackets we boarded and then on occasions we had to duck our heads as the stalactites were quite low.  Was a fun time though with the usual bright and colourful lights highlighting the cave.img_2611fullsizeoutput_530Little bit of interesting information on how to remember which are stalactites and which are stalagmites…the word stalactite has a ‘c’ for ‘ceiling’ and the word stalagmite has a ‘g’ for ‘ground’…an easy way to remember I think..fullsizeoutput_531After our visit we hopped off the boat and took a short walk through part of the cave where at the exit we were met by our driver and taken to lunch.  We arrived at a typical Chinese looking building with basic interior but enjoyed an ok lunch[I say ‘ok’ as it was not some of the best food I have had in China] consisting of several Chinese dishes including an egg dish, rice, a meat dish for Jon and the usual eggplant dish for me.fullsizeoutput_52efullsizeoutput_52bfullsizeoutput_52aBefore returning to our hotel we took a quick tour of Shenyang city; not an awful lot to see but we got out of the car to look around and seeing as it was very warm, got a good spray of water from the fountain in the city centre.fullsizeoutput_536fullsizeoutput_53afullsizeoutput_535Then back to our hotel after another great day in China!