China Jpbowen · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 186 m.
The real relief above Xueyu Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
186m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
19°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
671m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
19 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 19 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 33 °C at the entrance, 14 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from May to September. The wettest months are from May to September: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 12°3°Jan
- 15°5°Feb
- 20°10°Mar
- 25°15°Apr
- 28°19°May
- 31°22°Jun
- 33°25°Jul
- 33°24°Aug
- 29°20°Sep
- 24°16°Oct
- 19°10°Nov
- 13°4°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Chinese cave
Xueyu Cave is a cave in China. The entrance is at 186 m. It has an underground river.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Sanjiannearest town · 6.8 km in a straight line
- Chongqing Xiannüshan Airport (CQW)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 37 km in a straight line
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
The the river runs highest from May to July.
The the river carries about 57 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from May to July. It is lowest from December to February.
- 16 m³/sJan
- 19 m³/sFeb
- 35 m³/sMar
- 58 m³/sApr
- 90 m³/sMay
- 112 m³/sJun
- 94 m³/sJul
- 79 m³/sAug
- 83 m³/sSep
- 80 m³/sOct
- 53 m³/sNov
- 27 m³/sDec
From about 16 m³/s in the lowest month to 112 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 2,519 km².
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- other cave entrances within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- car parks within 2 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Sanjian6.8 km in a straight line
- Shuanglu9.3 km in a straight line
- Sanhe12 km in a straight line
- Baoluan12 km in a straight line
- Lizi13 km in a straight line
- Sanba13 km in a straight line
- Mingshan14 km in a straight line
- Nantianhu15 km in a straight line
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 12 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 31 | 33 | 33 | 29 | 24 | 19 | 13 |
| Afternoon | 12 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 28 | 31 | 33 | 33 | 29 | 24 | 19 | 13 |
| Night | 3 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 24 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 4 |
| Rain (mm) | 20 | 23 | 62 | 112 | 174 | 202 | 153 | 141 | 147 | 120 | 54 | 20 |
| Rainy days | 6 | 6 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 19 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 10 | 6 |
| Sun hours/day | 0.4 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 12 | 12 | 3 | 20 | 0.4 |
| Feb | 15 | 15 | 5 | 23 | 0.5 |
| Mar | 20 | 20 | 10 | 62 | 2.0 |
| Apr | 25 | 25 | 15 | 112 | 3.0 |
| May | 28 | 28 | 19 | 174 | 2.6 |
| Jun | 31 | 31 | 22 | 202 | 2.9 |
| Jul | 33 | 33 | 25 | 153 | 5.5 |
| Aug | 33 | 33 | 24 | 141 | 5.5 |
| Sep | 29 | 29 | 20 | 147 | 2.7 |
| Oct | 24 | 24 | 16 | 120 | 0.9 |
| Nov | 19 | 19 | 10 | 54 | 0.6 |
| Dec | 13 | 13 | 4 | 20 | 0.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (186 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 162% | 145% | 178% | 66% | 74% | 145% | 258% | 39% | 122% | 133% | 54% | 103% |
| 2021 | 127% | 115% | 138% | 103% | 127% | 92% | 138% | 247% | 165% | 81% | 70% | 88% |
| 2022 | 133% | 109% | 169% | 170% | 104% | 115% | 83% | 52% | 95% | 71% | 61% | 104% |
| 2023 | 88% | 116% | 100% | 114% | 87% | 124% | 210% | 95% | 128% | 129% | 119% | 39% |
| 2024 | 176% | 94% | 58% | 170% | 79% | 85% | 142% | 34% | 80% | 86% | 91% | 121% |
| 2025 | 187% | 98% | 112% | 83% | 69% | 76% | 123% | 107% | 170% | 161% | 99% | 175% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Xueyu Cave
China
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 186 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Tenglong Cave
China · 130 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,176 mEntrance altitude
- 12 °CInside, all year
Shuanghedong Cave Network
China · 179 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 803 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q10565850) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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