With ticket prices as high as thousands of yuan and no available reservations even when booking half a month in advance, this niche type of activity has gone viral.

Li Yang (pseudonym), a white-collar worker living in Guangzhou, plans to take her family to Guizhou to escape the summer heat in recent days. While researching travel itineraries, she got hooked on cave exploration through multiple posts on social media platforms.

"For adults, playing stand-up paddleboarding in the underground dark lake makes for great photos; children can see stalactites, intuitively experience the magic of karst landforms, and also try activities such as via ferrata (iron-rope rock climbing). The cave is very cool, and the more I browse, the more eager I am to go," said Li Yang. The price of cave exploration is not low, and the total cost for a family of three is expected to be around 3,000 yuan. She had already prepared herself for the financial "hit", but did not expect that the cave she favored showed no available spots even half a month in advance.

Cannot book a spot even half a month in advance

On the 11th, CBN View saw on third-party platforms that the Shilong Cave cave exploration package located in Qingzhen, Guiyang, Guizhou, is priced at 1,280 yuan per person, with the same price for adults and children, and the earliest available booking date is August 31; the Sansheng Cave cave exploration package located in Xingyi, Guizhou, is priced at 499 yuan per person, including cave exploration popular science, cave via ferrata, paddleboarding, tea and other drinks, with the earliest booking available on August 22; the single ticket price for General's Cave, also located in Xingyi, is 698 yuan, and the earliest available booking is August 25.

Xiao Yi (pseudonym), who just finished her cave exploration experience in Xingyi, told CBN View that tickets for cave exploration are not as tight as before now, because the "summer tourism army" is gradually heading back on their return trips.

"I wanted to book several popular internet-famous caves in Xingyi at that time. When I inquired on July 26, only spots after August 15 were available, and Shilong Cave could only be booked after August 20. I was completely stunned at that moment. I originally thought cave exploration was a very niche activity, but I never expected it to be so popular," said Xiao Yi. She kept browsing posts on social media platforms all day to see if she could grab a canceled ticket from someone else, and did not finally secure three cave exploration tickets for August 8 until 10 p.m. that night.

The total cost of Xiao Yi's family of three on the cave exploration activity was about 2,300 yuan, including the cave entrance ticket and car rental fees. "Many caves are far away from the urban area of Xingyi, so you can only charter a round-trip car." However, she thinks the money was well spent.

Image source: Provided by the interviewee

Xiao Yi said that inside the cave, the local guide first took them to see stalagmites, stone pillars and other formations of various shapes, and popularized the knowledge of their formation process, which the child listened to with great interest. Later, they experienced paddleboarding and via ferrata. "It's a little bit thrilling, and the feeling of exploring the center of the earth is very special. But since it's a parent-child route, the overall difficulty level is not high."

CBN View noticed that on social media platforms, many netizens posted to ask for available cave exploration spots.

Screenshot source: Social media platform

Chen Lei, the person in charge of General's Cave at Guizhou Bigfoot Cave Exploration Tourism Co., Ltd., told CBN View that this summer vacation, General's Cave receives more than 400 tourists per day on average, with a maximum single-day reception of 450 people, and the average daily operating revenue during the summer vacation can reach 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. The scenic area officially opened on June 30, 2025, and the passenger flow and consultation volume in the summer of 2026 increased by 200% compared with the same period last year.

From the perspective of customer group structure, he revealed that the core customer group of General's Cave at present is parent-child family tourists. The scenic area has specially set up parent-child experience routes and advanced experience routes to meet the needs of different groups; more than 95% of the tourists are from other provinces.

"During the peak summer season, passenger flow is tight. To book ideal time slots (such as the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. slots), you need to make reservations about 20 days in advance. Regular reservations need to be made half a month in advance, and the slots on popular dates are almost fully booked," said Chen Lei.

Why has this niche activity become so popular?

Wu Liyun, a professor at the China Culture and Tourism Industry Research Institute of Beijing International Studies University, pointed out that the rise of cave exploration mainly stems from three reasons: first, its strong experience nature fits young people's preference for immersive challenges; second, the uniqueness of resources, landscapes such as stalactites and underground dark rivers have natural scarcity and aesthetic value; third, social communication and fashion attributes, combined with creative products such as "cave coffee", further amplify its popularity.

Public information shows that Guizhou Province has a total of 42,800 karst cave entrances of various types. As of July 2025, the province has 14 A-level tourist attractions featuring caves, including 2 national 5A-level tourist attractions and 6 national 4A-level tourist attractions.

How to further develop these rich cave resources? Wu Liyun believes that mature operation and management models can be replicated, but simple copy-pasting should be avoided. Different caves should have differentiated positioning to prevent "all caves looking identical".

In response to the fact that more and more caves are joining the ranks of commercial development, Chen Lei said that he is not worried about the homogenization of the industry at present, and instead welcomes more peers to enter the cave cultural tourism field. A large number of practitioners jointly cultivating the emerging cave exploration business can expand the overall market of the industry, raise the public's awareness of cave exploration projects, and indirectly bring traffic and empowerment to scenic spots.

In terms of development and protection, Wu Liyun emphasized that all work must be carried out under the premise of giving priority to natural protection. First, scientifically define the maximum carrying capacity to avoid irreversible damage to the structural stability of caves and stalactites caused by excessive tourists; second, formulate protective measures to balance artificial lighting, tour facilities and the cave microenvironment; third, promote the introduction of local protection regulations to bring commercial operations into the scope of legal supervision.

Chen Lei said that the company to which the scenic area belongs has developed multiple caves including General's Cave, and always adheres to the principle of "protective development". It only carries out basic road construction, and would rather detour to protect the original landscape than deliberately damage the cave landform.

He introduced that the growth cycle of caves is extremely slow, and excessive development is likely to cause irreversible pollution and damage. Therefore, during the development of General's Cave, the traditional colorful lighting design commonly used in caves is abandoned. Warm light and white light are used throughout the cave to maximally preserve the original appearance of the cave.

For many tourists, the safety of cave exploration is the primary consideration.

"At present, cave exploration tourism involves special skills such as rappelling and stream trekking, which belongs to adventure tourism, but there are no unified national standards for this type of tourism in China," Wu Liyun suggested that Guizhou and other regions take the lead in formulating local standards, clarifying indicators such as access conditions, facilities and equipment, certification requirements and maximum carrying capacity. At the same time, implement the system of certified practitioners, who must hold both the outdoor instructor (including special cave exploration certification) and first aid certificate, and establish a complete emergency plan system.

She pointed out that the key to promoting the sustainable development of caves lies in safe operation. Caves have a constant temperature and are suitable for operation all year round, but the bottom line of safety must be firmly held, the main body of operation and management must be clarified and included in government supervision, systematic planning and differentiated development must be carried out, a diverse product form must be constructed to avoid homogeneous competition, so as to ensure the sustained and healthy development of cave exploration tourism.

This article is from the WeChat official account "CBN View" (ID: jwview), written by Luo Kun, edited by Lin Wansi, chief editors in charge: Wei Wei and Chang Tao, authorized to release by 36Kr.