Crystal Palace

Chinese name: 水晶宫（Shui Jing Gong）
Location: Bama Yao Ethnic County, Guangxi.
Ticket: Entrance Ticket CNY150.00
Estimated time of tour: 2-3hours
Recommended time of visit: All year round.
Nearby attractions: Bird Cave, Bama Village，Longevity Village, Panyang River, etc.

Shuijinggong or Crystal Palace in Mandarin is actually a caste cave 44km northeast of Bama County found by local people. It locates in Nashe village, Bama Yao Ethnic County, Guangxi Zhuang Ethnic Autonomous Region. It was found, purely by chance, by local villagers. It was then investigated thoroughly by team led by Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. It was open to public in September 20th 2007 after a long though after planning and designing of local government. It was highly rated by Chinese National Geographic magazine, owned by Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the most beautiful cave developed for touristic purpose among over 100 other caves we have investigated. This magazine made a list of 7 highly recommended caste caves in China. This crystal palace was enlisted together with Zhijing Cave in Guizhou, Furong Cave in Chongqing, Xueyu Cave in Fengdu (Chongqing Municipality), Huanglong Cave in Zhangjiajie, Tenglong cave in En’shi City and Shihua Cave in Beijing.

The fame of this cave had its origin on a June day in 2004. On that day, one local villager slept outside of this unknown cave out of exhaustion by farming. He then felt a breeze of cool air coming out of a small hole near him. He reckoned that there must be a much larger cave behind this small hole. With help of few partners, he opened up that small hole with very basic farming tools, and a huge cave popped up in front of their eyes. They were amazed by the scene: a sea of crystal like stalactite. Local party secretary responded quickly on hearing this founding. He organized local farmers to stand on guard 24 hours preventing the possible looting and damage of this site. Later, he invited film teams to make promoting videos about this cave. News quickly spread to County and City level governments. With a bit of efforts, this cave even made it debut in national TV channel: China Central Television (CCTV). It was a successful campaign to raise public awareness of this previously unknown cave.