Expedition Name (& Club): Hong Meigui Cave Exploration Society 2008 Expedition to Houping, China (HMG)

Destination country: China
Region: Houping

Lat: 29.5877 Long: 107.9960 Elevation: m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Erin Lynch

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

Continue exploration, surveying and photography of the Er Wang Dong and San Wang Dong systems, with particular emphasis on leads at the northern and western extremities of the systems.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

Please explain the aspects of the trip which make it eligible for Ghar Parau funding.

In terms of survey length per man-day, Houping is Hong Meigui's most productive area, but it is also the project area with the hardest living conditions. In 2007, the Wulong area, which includes parts of the Houping area, was inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites. Hong Meigui cave surveys and other data were used as part of this application, and Hong Meigui members were directly involved in the preparation of the application. For more information, see http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1248

Detailed description of objectives:

Give a more detailed account of the purpose of the trip, including any particular known caves you intend to visit, specific areas where you will explore for new cave, and scientific experiments you will attempt.

Houping is a 40km² area of limestone that has yielded over 60km of surveyed passage since 2001. The location of Houping relative to other Hong Meigui expedition areas is shown on the attached map of Chongqing municipality. The two main systems in the area, Er Wang Dong and San Wang Dong, have surveyed lengths of 26km and 32.5km respectively. These systems primarily comprise large fossil phreas developed on multiple levels, with a network of seasonally active passages at deeper levels. A particular focus for 2008 will be the area around Niubizi Tiankeng, which was connected to Er Wang Dong in 2006 and is very close to the Old Department Store area of San Wang Dong. Any leads in this area therefore represent a realistic possibility for the discovery of a connection between the two systems, which would be the second longest system so far discovered in China. Also in this area is Niubizi Dong, a cave with an entrance in the side of Niubizi Tiankeng. It is intended to explore leads at the end of this cave in the hope of connecting to Er Wang Dong in the Ninja Master or Puke Passage areas. Leads in the Puke Passage area represent the northern extremity of Er Wang Dong, and thus offer the possibility of extending the known cave system into unknown territory. Another focus area will be the Misdirection and Bag of Tricks areas of San Wang Dong, which represent the western extremity of the known system. All new finds will be photographed and surveyed to BCRA grade 5 standard. There are numerous mining artefacts found throughout the caves of Houping. These artefacts will be photographed and their positions noted. The most sensitive of the artefacts and speleothems will be flagged off with conservation tape as some of the caves are under threat of development for adventure tourism. The caves of Houping are also home to a wide variety of cave life, and there will be an effort to collect specimens during the expedition. The dye tracing studies initiated in 2007 will also be continued.

Previous work in this area:

Give details of any previous work in this area by your own and other teams. Include references to reports and articles published on the area, and the names of any local cavers or academics with whom you have discussed the Expedition.

Since it was first visited by western cavers in June 2001 there have been twelve Hong Meigui expeditions to the Houping area. The first two were collaborations with the Guilin Karst Institute as part of a project to study the karst resources of Wulong County in it's successful bid for National Geological Park status. Prof. Zhu's group at the Karst Institute has surveyed several of the tiankengs in Houping. They have published in-depth treatment of the karst features of the area, including maps from Hong Meigui expeditions, in Chinese. Up to 2006, work by Hong Meigui concentrated solely on entrances near to Er Wang Dong village, primarily in the two main systems – Er Wang Dong and San Wang Dong. In 2006 and 2007 there were two expeditions based in Houping town and one based in the nearby town of Tongzi that explored caves in nearby areas. Tongzi lies beyond the hypothetical southwestern extension of San Wang Dong, so caves in this area are of particular interest from a long term perspective.