Ningwu Ice Cave, China

This is a sight that will really send a shiver down your spine. Not because it's scary - but because of its sheer beauty. The caves are so cold it sends a shiver down the spine of people standing outside.
The caves are, like many interesting corners of China, not yet on any tourist trail, but are spectacular to visit. Situated in the middle of the Yellow River valley, in the heart of one of China's most scenic regions, these incredible ice caves are more than three million years old. Identified by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geology, cave expert on-site inspection: this hole is formed in the Cenozoic Quaternary Ice Age, hence the name of years the ice cave.
The experts said that only the first of nine ice cave in the ice cave ranked the country more than 10,000 caves. Divided into upper and lower five-story drill ice cave, under the ice stairs, over ice stack, available layers sightseeing. Each floor can accommodate dozens of people. Over 20 meters in diameter, the hole at its widest point, the narrowest of over 10 meters. Formed by the ice, icicles, ice curtain, frozen waterfalls, ice, ice Buddha, ice sheets, ice bell, Iceman, ice Buddha, etc., strange, to name a few. Carved inside the cave, large and small views or exquisite, dazzling crystal, or graceful, magnificent, all amazing.
Photos shows an ancient ice cave in Ningwu County of Xinzhou City, north China's Shanxi Province, 50 km west of the Wa township Ma Tei Village Office next to the travel lanes, 2300 meters above sea level. The cave, lit up by coloured lights, is more than 100 meters long. Inside it is covered with thick ice that freezes in the winter and remains all year.
Huge icicles are formed which hang from the ceiling, in sharp contrast with the green summer foliage outside.
They're so chilly that even standing outside you can feel the cold - even on a hot summer's day.

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Danxia , China

Bordering on Hunan Province to the further north and Jiangxi Province to the east, Shaoguan is a hub of communications connecting Central China with South China. It lies in the north of Guangdong Province, thus having been called the northern Gate of Guangdong. Covering an area of 18,579 square kilometers (7,173 square miles), Shaoguan has a population of 3,148,500 (2003) and consists of three urban districts, six counties and two cities. With a long history, an important geographic location, aged cultural tradition and rich natural resources, Shaoguan is an excellent tourist city in China, a national advanced clean city and a civilized city in Guangdong as well.

History
Shaoguan is one of the earliest birthplaces of Lingnan's ancient culture, the native place of Maba People and the rising place of Shixia's culture. As early as 100 thousand years ago, the ancestors of North Guangdong labored and lived here. Shaoguan was called Shaozhou in Sui Dynasty (581 - 618) and set up the customhouse in Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) and thus began to be called the present name.

Landform
At Shaoguan, the Wu River from the northwest and the Zhen River from the northeast join up to create the Beijiang River which flows south to Guangzhou. Shaoguan's downtown area lies on a peninsula shaped by the Zhen River and the Wu River. There are seven bridges crossing the three rivers. Located in a comparatively high mountainous region, Shaoguan City is popular for its beautiful natural scenery with a few hot springs.

Climate
Shaoguan is in the middle subtropical monsoon area of humid type. The four seasons are very distinct with a lot rain in summer and occasionally snowfall in winter. The annual rainfall is 1,910 millimeters (6.3 feet) and the average annual temperature is 20.7 degrees Celsius (69.3 degrees Fahrenheit). The rainy season and hot season are basically of the same time, favorable to plant growth and agricultural production.

Tourist Resources
Shaoguan has peculiar landscapes and rich tourist resources. It has 11 scenic spots, conservation areas, forest parks, key temples and cultural relics at national level and 19 scenic spots, temples and cultural relics at provincial level, such as Fengcailou Mansion, Mausoleum of Zhang Jiuling, Mt. Furongshan and Maozifeng Peak. The most well known natural view is Danxia Mountain, one of the four famous mountains of Guangdong Province, distinctive for its steep stone walls, peaks and pillars. Besides, there is a modern communication network of railways, highways and waterways organically connected. Shaoguan has become a modern city with convenient transport facilities and it was rated as China's Excellent Tourist City in 2001.

- Mount Danxia -

Located in the northeast of Shaoguan city in Guangdong Province, Mount Danxia is called 'Red Stone Park of China', 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from downtown Shaoguan. Danxia means the 'red rays of the sun' in Chinese words. It is the peculiar landform characterized by red steep cliffs, flat valleys and sheer body. Geologist classifies the same sort of such formations into 'Danxia Landform'. Mount Danxia is the most beautiful and typical among the other 700 landforms which are to be found elsewhere in China.

The recognition of Mount Danxia can be traced back to 1,500 years ago, when our ancestors approached it and put their admiration into beautiful poems. The numberless sized red stone peaks, stone walls, stone bridges and the like are scattered randomly over the mountain.

What impress us most are the peaks. The top is flat, one or more sides are almost upright cliffs, while the opposite side is the gently sloping hill. More often the gentle places are covered by lush vegetation, and the place that the red stones expose are usually the craggy cliffs. The unique body endows the peaks with the beauty of majesty as well as the charm of softness. Standing in front of the cliffs, the stone wall of hundreds of meters high is like the magnificent pillar that holds up the sky. Overlooking the mountain from afar, the line of the summit and mountain slopes brings you a feeling of softness and intimacy.

The peculiar red stone in Mount Danxia came into being 100 million years ago. It was an inland basin here at that time in which the surrounding rocks broke and accumulated. It was pretty hot and dry then, thus the rock was oxidized and turned rusty. Undergoing a period of 30,000,000 years, the deposits in the basin gradually transformed into red sandstone and conglomerate. Later, as a result of the crustal movement, the land rose and turned into the mountainous area. The long-time erosion made it present Danxia Landform constituted by red sandstone.

Mount Danxia is not only bright in color, but peculiar in outlook. Yangyuan Stone, Yinyuan Stone and Longlin Stone are the most distinctive among the others. Yangyuan Stone is a colossal stone rising sharply into the sky with the height of 28 meters (92 feet) and the diameter of 7 meters(7.7 yards). Yinyuan Stone is a crack that was eroded by the running water on the mountain, and it is considered as the 'Mother Stone' and 'Source of Life'. The two special stones face each other across the mountain, one is masculine and the other is feminine, one is firm and the other is tender. The perfect match of the two stones is far enough to stir up your astonishment and exclamation. The surface of Longlin Stone has some similarity to the scale of the dragon, connected to be the lines by thousands of honeycomb-like holes. The color of the epiphytic moss varies as the climate changes, resembling a huge dragon on the stone wall, undoubtedly a wonder in nature.

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Mysterious Toyama Bay

For the past 10,000 years, the sea forest has stood just as it is today. This mysterious world is a large bay on the east side of the Noto Peninsula, which projects into the Sea of Japan in west-central Japan. 3,000-meter-high mountains suddenly drop to 1,000 meters below the surface of the ocean creating wondrous natural phenomena and extreme habitat for exotic sea creatures. Known for its wide variety of fish, Toyama Bay has been dubbed "a natural fish tank," because throughout the year many kinds of fish (meaning "very fresh" in Toyama's local dialect) are caught and then unloaded from ships at bustling fishing ports along the coast of the bay, such as Uozu, Shinminato, and Himi. Nutrient-rich springs overflow from deep beneath the sea-bed, causing several hundred species of sea life to inhabit the area.

The coastal shelf in Toyama Bay is small, and the sea floor drops sharply a short distance from the land, with the deepest parts of the bay being more than 1,200 meters deep. Into the surface seawater of the bay, warm-water fish species are carried by the warm Tsushima current, while in the deep seawater at a depth of over 300 meters coldwater fish species live in the much cooler waters of the Japan Sea (deep seawater) at a temperature of around two degrees Celsius. Thus, Toyama Bay has an environment where both warm- and cold-water marine life can exist, and thus it is a treasure trove of marine resources.

Seventy percent of the total fish catch is comprised of migratory warm-water fish such as tuna and yellowtail, while the rest includes many kinds of deep-water fish and shellfish such as sweet shrimp, benizuwai crab, Japanese ivory shell, firefly squid, and white shrimp. Rare firefly squid and white shrimp are particularly valuable marine resources that are rarely found in areas other than Toyama Bay. Every spring, a large number of the tiny squids come to the coast from waters more than 200 meters deep for spawning. The mysterious pale blue light emitted by the squids in the night sea when they are caught is a common spring sight in Toyama Bay.

Watasenia scintillans, or the Firefly Squid, is only 3 inches long, but packs a stunning feature in that small package. At the end of their tentacles are special organs called photophores that light up like glow sticks at a rave. In the Toyama Bay, in the central Japan Sea, the squid are found in fantastic abundance. Normally living at 1200 feet underwater, a v shaped canyon in Toyama bay pushes the current, and the squid, to the surface in massive numbers where, forced up, the millions of squids turn the bay into a writhing, gleaming blue froth.

Fished by the ton from March to June, when the fishing boats dump the nets onto the boat floor the squirming squids light up and turn the boats themselves into blue beacons. Thankfully, for the curious visitors, one need not sign up to work on a Japanese fishing-boat tour to see the phenomenon.

The habitat of the world-famous glowing firefly squid limits itself to the Western Pacific ocean. The firefly squid is a middle-deep sea squid that can live on depths of 600 to 1200 (365m) feet. The body of these little squids are covered with photophores that give a blue light. The main goal of these photophores is to lure little fishes, so that it can catch them easier. Just as the vampire squid, the firefly squid has its photophores totally under control. He can make different light show patterns with these photophores to communicate with others, to distract a predator or even lure their pray.

The reproduction of the firefly squid, once a year (March to June) millions of squids come together to fertilize and to drop their eggs in the Toyama Bay in Japan. The big reunion of these squids is one big light show that you can admire and it attracts thousands of tourists. Once the firefly squids have done their job, they die. The firefly squid has a one year life-cycle and once that year is over they die and wash up on the shore. This event is very important for other sea creatures and sea birds who enjoy eating the dead bodies of the firefly squid.

Firefly squids are just as many other sea creature a delicacy in Japan and they're mainly caught when the firefly squids come together to mate.

Sightseeing

Early in the morning, after 3 AM, sightseeing boats depart the Namerikawa fishing port (Namerikawa is also home to the world's only museum dedicated to the firefly squid) in Toyama prefecture, making a short journey to fixed nets located about 1 to 2 km offshore. As the fishermen haul in their nets, the light emitted by the firefly squid causes the sea surface to glow a cobalt blue, evoking squeals of delight from the tourists.

Toyama Bay's firefly squid fishing season opened on March 1 and is expected to continue until the end of June. Sightseeing boats are scheduled to run until May 7.

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