Longyou County

You're probably coming here to see the Longyou Grottoes, which can be visited in a few hours. These are not well known outside Zhejiang and do not get many foreign visitors.

There are several local bus routes, notably route 9, which connects the train station with the Grottoes via a bus yard and the middle of town. Officially this runs more than 20 times per day, but the reality may be different.

Taxis can be found, and will generally find you. Do not assume that you will be the only passenger(s). There are also smaller, slower pedicabs.

• 🌍 Longyou Grottoes (龙游石窟, Lóngyóu Shíkū) (By bus 9 / K8). 08:00-16:30. The Longyou Grottoes are a series of at least 24 large artificial sandstone caverns located inside Phoenix Hill, just north of the centre of Longyou on the north bank of the Qu River. They are thought to date to a period before the creation of the Qin Dynasty in 212 BCE, but there is no record of their existence prior to 1992. They were discovered when a local spent 17 days pumping out one of the local rectangular fishing holes. The small fishing holes held much larger fish than might be expected given their area at the surface. The almost completely unadorned grottoes average more than 1000 square metres in area, reach depths of 30m, have thin walls between them but do not connect, and would have required the excavation of nearly one million cubic metres of sandstone. It is not known when they were built, by whom, for what purpose, nor where the excavated stone went. Five of the grottoes have been drained, lit, and connected on a tour route. In the first of these mysterious ancient excavations, some of the walls and support columns have now been decoratively carved. ¥85 entrance fee. (updated Jan 2018)

If you want to see more rock, some sandstone hills and an arch can be seen outside Quzhou, and Sanqingshan is gorgeous.