Thanh Hoa temporarily stopped visiting the 250 million year old Bat Cave because of the risk of falling rocks

Thanh Hoa

The government stopped allowing visitors to visit the 250-million-year-old Bat Cave after complaining about the unsafe situation of free-falling soil and rocks.

On September 12, the Management Board of Pu Luong Nature Reserve said that activities to visit and explore Bat Cave were temporarily suspended until the Pu Luong Commune People's Committee completed a safety inspection and proposed a treatment plan.

Previously, a tourist reported discovering a lot of soil and small rocks scattered in the area inside the cave; Some large stone blocks are at risk of falling freely from above.

While waiting for the inspection, Pu Luong Commune People's Committee will strengthen supervision and prevent arbitrarily bringing visitors into Bat Cave; At the same time, propagate people and local tourism businesses not to arbitrarily bring customers into the cave without notice of reopening.

Bat Cave belongs to a special-use forest area managed by Pu Luong Nature Reserve, but the unit has not yet organized tourism exploitation here. Pick-up and fee collection activities are currently carried out by the Kho Muong village community and have not been licensed.

Bat Cave was formed in limestone about 250 million years ago, is about 2.5 km long, the cave entrance is more than 10 m high and is related to the underground river system. This is a type of karst terrain (a typical weathering phenomenon of limestone mountains eroded by flowing water) typical of the Pu Luong limestone mountain area.

In recent years, the Kho Muong village community has exploited Bat cave as a tourist attraction. Tickets to enter the cave cost about 20,000-50,000 VND per person, and the fee to hire a local guide ranges from 100,000 VND to 200,000 VND per group.