Jiuxiang Scenic Area

Brief information about Jiuxiang Scenic Area
Jiuxiang Scenic Area is 20 sq km in area and includes 5 tourist attractions,Diehong Bridge (5 km southeast from Jiuxiang Street, famous for the karst caves,the twin waterfalls and the huge natural stone dam cluster),Dasha Dam (consisting of picturesque karst caves and thick forest),Sanjiao Cave (5 km north of Jiuxiang Street, famous for the karst caves),Alu Long [a scenic area 6 km west of Jiuxiang Street,famous for the excavated Yi Nationality cliff paintings of Qin 221BC-206BC) and Han (206BC-220AD) dynasties and Mingyue (meaning the bright moon) Lake.

The brief information about Jiuxiang Scenic Area
In fact,Jiuxiang krast caves were developed in the ancient dolomite 600 million years ago.Altogether, there are over 100 caves in the area, and Jiuxiang is praised as the "Home of Karst caves".The local saying goes,"There are so many caves in Jiuxiang that people can hardly finish counting them in their lifetime ".From this visitors get to know the great number and grandeur of the Jiuxiang caves.Jiuxiang scenic area could be divided into 5 scenic sites which are listed as the following:The Rainbow Bridge,the Sanjiao cave,Dashaba,Alulong and the Moon Lake.Up to the present, only the Rainbow Bridge scenic site has been developed for tourism purposes,while the rest 4 sites are still awaiting for future development.

The history about Jiuxiang Scenic Area
The Jiuxiang Scenic Area is famous of its limestone cave group.In 1984,a group composed of geographical and forest scenic experts came to Nine County and discovered this limestone cave group,which is one of the biggest found in the world.Judging from the stone,the limestone cave group was formed about 600 million years ago.The total area occupied is about 100 square kilometers.Due to new generation (about 65 million years ago),the Yunnan Highland rose up with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and formed the magnificent and fascinating limestone cave group.The Nine County is a secret and mysterious world with lots of strange stones,complicated path,gloomy valley,fancy rock,anfractuous labyrinth,etc. There are a lot of strange and mysterious spots pending discovery by tourists.

The view in Jiuxiang Scenic Area
Jiuxiamg is the habitat to the aboriginal Yi ethnic people for many generations. The scenic site covers a total area of 172 square kilometers,in which are enchantingly beautiful natural landscape,magnificent underground scenery,long-standing humanistic scenes and intense ethnic folk customs.

Legendary tales say that the karst coves in Jiuxiang were originally gold pearls,which were the royal gifts made and presented by the Heavenly Emperor Yuhuang to congratulate the 1,000th birthday of Mother Goddess Xiwangmu.At the royal banquet,all the heavenly immortals vied to see and play with the precious pearls.The gold string threading the pearls were accidentally broken,and the gold pearls fell from the heaven to earth,and turned into the Jiuxiang caves of different size,while the gold string turned into the Maitian River which meanders through the caves.