Have you noticed that some of the most beautiful and striking natural attractions in the world are often either hidden from the eyes of the public or located so far, deep, high that it is easier to sell your soul to the devil than to get there? A group of 15 speleological scientists went to the mountains around Chongqing and disappeared for a month. They literally fell through the ground. But no one was looking for the researchers, and no one was panicking, because the scientists were busy exploring the lost, incredible, and otherworldly world of the Er Wang Dong Cave.

Nature has been hiding a real wonder of the world from people for many years – one of the largest caves in the world. It's 441 meters deep and its tunnels are 42,139 meters long.

When you get to know this cave better, you might get the idea that it did not appear by chance, but as a backup mini-copy of the Earth. Inside it there are not just stalactites and stalagmites, bats and transparent crayfish, narrow tunnels and huge, spacious grottoes – there is a real, independent ecosystem, its own world. You do not believe this until you see with your own eyes the clouds under the limestone ceiling or the mystical fog that fills another hollow in the wall.

Chongqing itself will bore you quickly. The city is young and mostly consists of just skyscrapers, offices, and restaurants. However, the Er Wang Dong Cave will strike you with its uniqueness. Whether you are an experienced tourist or barely making the first steps, this trip is for you. There are halls in the cave where anyone can get to. But there are also more interesting places you have to work hard to reach: you have to swim across the lake, climb up the rocks, climb down the ropes.

The Er Wang Dong Cave is a place that cannot be described in words: it is a beautiful mystery of nature, accidentally discovered by man; halls of 51,000 square meters in size, where even an echo can get lost; it's waterfalls and whole «fields» of stalactites.