Ten Thousand Ice Cave Editorial Photo

Photo taken in Shangxi province,China.This cave is in Ningwu county, Shanxi province at an elevation of 2, 300 meters above sea level and was formed during the ice age in the cenozoic period, about three million years ago. It is called `Wannianbingdong` in Chinese, or “10,000-year cave”. It was made a national geo-park, in 2005, and a national AAAA tourism spot, in March 2011. Its ranks first among China’s nine famous ice caves, and has the greatest amount of ice. It has five layers connected by ice stairs, holes, and bridges, with each level able to hold dozens of people. At its widest it is more than 20 meters and more than 10 meters at its narrowest. It has a great variety of ice creations such as pillars, curtains, waterfalls, flowers, Buddhas, beds, clocks and human profiles and is a magnificent crystalline world. Curiously, there is a dormant volcano just 200 meters away from the ice cave, which the locals refer to as `millennium volcano`.