Kathmandu— As heatwaves sweep across China, a new tourism trend is emerging in the country’s karst regions: exploring cool caves. Tourists like Chang Ting from Xi'an are venturing into these natural formations in Guizhou Province, seeking respite from the summer heat and a unique travel experience that has quickly gone viral on social media, boosting local economies and creating new job opportunities.

A Growing Trend

This cave exploration fad is particularly popular among young Chinese people during their summer vacations. Viral videos tagged “Guizhou cave exploration” have garnered over 5 million likes on major platforms, with related topics accumulating hundreds of millions of views. Guizhou Province, which is more than 60 percent covered by karst landforms and boasts 42,800 identified cave entrances, is at the forefront of this trend.

Diversifying Cave Tourism

Guizhou has developed diverse experiential forms of cave tourism to cater to different visitors. These range from challenging outdoor adventures with zip lines and climbing routes—designed by experienced cave explorers like Song Yuanqiao and Zhao Fei—to in-depth tours of underground rivers and relaxing visits featuring themed dining spaces. Song and Zhao, who run a cave adventure project in Yanzidong (Sparrow Cave), have even studied international standards for cave route design and safety management to ensure responsible operations.

Local Economic Boost

The booming cave tourism is creating new job opportunities for local young people. Lei Yinggui, a 23-year-old cave tour instructor, noted that sports graduates now have more career options beyond traditional roles like coaching. It’s also inspiring migrant workers to return home and start their own businesses; Peng Wei, after returning from Shenzhen, opened a popular cave cafe in Xiuwen County with his former classmates, selling up to 600 cups of coffee daily at peak times.

National Trend & Sustainable Development

Guizhou is not alone in leveraging its natural cool resources for tourism. Heilongjiang Province offers forest summer getaways, Xizang provides high-altitude eco-retreats, and Xinjiang features grassland and mountain sightseeing. This aligns with a national policy to boost consumption by enriching distinctive tourism products. To ensure sustainability, Guizhou has implemented a new management plan for its karst caves, focusing on classification, ecological protection, and responsible development. Zhang Zaijie, director of the green development strategy research institute at Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, emphasized that “Karst caves are nonrenewable geological heritage…development within protection” is key to long-term success.

Guizhou’s approach to balancing tourism with ecological preservation will be crucial as this unique form of summer travel continues to gain popularity across China.

(With inputs from Xinhua)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.