----- Original Message ----- From: "Renee Skwara" <renee.skw...@gmail.com> To: texascavers@texascavers.com Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 3:33:20 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain Subject: [Texascavers] China contacts for a caving trip in late October?
I am going to China in late October this year and have heard that there are some amazing caves over there!! If anyone knows of someone who lives in China, in the caving community, that would know of any possibilites or have information about visiting some caves while I am there; I am really interested in getting in contact with them. If you could send me their contact information or any information. I would greatly appreciate it! Please contact me off the list at: renee.skw...@gmail.com cell: 830-377-1814 Thanks!! Renee Skwara Bexar Grotto Member xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hi Renee: I have been traveling to the caves of China since 1993 and have been involved with caving expeditions there. Wandering into caves on your own in China is not at all like doing so here in the US of A. It is very likely to attract the attention of the local authorities. Depending on where you are and the mood of the local officials that could be a very non-trivial event. China is essentially a police state and the locals tend to be suspicious of Foreign Devils trecking around in their countryside, especially if strangely bedecked with hard-hats and weird-looking caving gear. Obtaining permission (officially required) and directions is difficult or impossible without speaking passable Mandarin. Expedition caving in China has typically been difficult and expensive for foreigners, and usually mired in convoluted bureaucracy. That said, there is an English-speaking group of cavers living in China who are more-or-less based in Wulong, SE of Chongqing. They are the Hong Meigui (Red Rose) Cave Exploration Society and are organized by an American, Erin Lynch. She is also the director of the Tongzi Center for Karst and Cave Exploration. You can see what they are up to (some truly world-class caving!!) and contact them at http://www.hongmeigui.net/ Many Chinese caves are not for the timid: ½ kilometer-deep open surface pits, 1,000-meter deep caves, and humongous river passages that flood tens of meters during the wet season. Much of this is in remote rural areas where many of the natives don’t even speak Mandarin. Erin was at the ICS and is occasionally in Bowling Green, Kty, where she is completing her schooling under Chris Groves at the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute. My wife and I organize and lead commercial tourist trips to the Chinese Karst. Due to the problems of foreigners conducting wild cave visits, these are NOT caving trips as such. We do get into a lot of caves and see a lot of fabulous countryside. These are not caver-camping trips where we sleep with the pigs and cook our own food from the local markets, but rather are tourist trips where we stay in comfortable hotels and dine well in local restaurants. They are like extended NSS convention geology field trips with the addition of a lot of cultural experiences. If you have an interest, you can check us out at http://www.focusedtours.com/ We will be in far western China in September and October, but not in the karst. Our next karst trip to China will be October 2010 – folks are signing up for that now, as the trip is limited in size. Dwight Deal Aka: DirtDoc dirt...@comcast.net _______________________________________________ NMCAVER mailing list nmca...@caver.net http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/nmcaver_caver.net
