China Hiroki Ogawa · CC BY 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,753 m.
The real relief above Yulin Caves, 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.
1,753m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
10°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
45m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
10 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 10 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 30 °C at the entrance, 21 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to August.
- -1°-11°Jan
- 3°-7°Feb
- 10°-2°Mar
- 17°4°Apr
- 23°9°May
- 28°15°Jun
- 30°18°Jul
- 29°16°Aug
- 23°11°Sep
- 15°3°Oct
- 7°-3°Nov
- 0°-9°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.
Painted caves in Guazhou County, Gansu province, China
Yulin Caves is a cave in China. The entrance is at 1,753 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.
- Dunhuang Mogao International Airport (DNH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 96 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 in March.
The the river carries about 0.45 m³/s on average here. It runs highest in March, fed by melting snow. It is lowest from August to February.
- 0.0 m³/sJan
- 0.2 m³/sFeb
- 1.8 m³/sMar
- 1.2 m³/sApr
- 0.7 m³/sMay
- 0.6 m³/sJun
- 0.5 m³/sJul
- 0.3 m³/sAug
- 0.1 m³/sSep
- 0.1 m³/sOct
- 0.0 m³/sNov
- 0.0 m³/sDec
From about 0.00 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.8 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 2,449 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.
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 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
- 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).
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -1 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 23 | 28 | 30 | 29 | 23 | 15 | 7 | 0 |
| Afternoon | -1 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 23 | 28 | 30 | 29 | 23 | 15 | 7 | 0 |
| Night | -11 | -7 | -2 | 4 | 9 | 15 | 18 | 16 | 11 | 3 | -3 | -9 |
| Rain (mm) | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Rainy days | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Sun hours/day | 6.5 | 7.8 | 9.3 | 10.2 | 11.2 | 10.9 | 10.5 | 10.2 | 9.7 | 9.2 | 7.5 | 6.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 15 | 13 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -1 | -1 | -11 | 2 | 6.5 |
| Feb | 3 | 3 | -7 | 1 | 7.8 |
| Mar | 10 | 10 | -2 | 2 | 9.3 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 10.2 |
| May | 23 | 23 | 9 | 9 | 11.2 |
| Jun | 28 | 28 | 15 | 15 | 10.9 |
| Jul | 30 | 30 | 18 | 14 | 10.5 |
| Aug | 29 | 29 | 16 | 9 | 10.2 |
| Sep | 23 | 23 | 11 | 6 | 9.7 |
| Oct | 15 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 9.2 |
| Nov | 7 | 7 | -3 | 2 | 7.5 |
| Dec | 0 | 0 | -9 | 2 | 6.2 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,753 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
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 | — | — | — | — | 143% | 8% | 36% | 21% | 5% | — | — | — |
| 2021 | — | — | — | — | 333% | 22% | 38% | 13% | 40% | — | — | — |
| 2022 | — | — | — | — | 24% | 14% | 56% | 48% | 5% | — | — | — |
| 2023 | — | — | — | — | 54% | 24% | 60% | 134% | 65% | — | — | — |
| 2024 | — | — | — | — | 20% | 80% | 62% | 128% | 265% | — | — | — |
| 2025 | — | — | — | — | 49% | 65% | 73% | 307% | 25% | — | — | — |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q751622) · 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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