Photographer Cai Shanhai captures life and leisure of southwest China’s “cave dwellers”
In 2023, photographer Cai Shanhai began roaming around the countryside of southwest China. He traveled through Hunan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, traversing a vast and famous landscape of stunning peaks—China’s 20-yuan note features the karst mountains of Guilin, Guangxi. The parts that attracted him most, though, were the natural caves that are an essential part of locals’ daily lives and their spirituality.
Almost every village Cai came across seemed to have a cave that people visited for leisure and entertainment. Locals use the caves to avoid the heat, square dance, and even go on dates. “The caves that I visited typically consist of four to five halls,” Cai tells TWOC. “For example, in one cave, there was a hall operating as a karaoke bar, with a smaller cave next to it serving as a place of worship for the [Daoist god] Queen Mother of the West. Further up, there was a much larger cave that you need a flashlight to explore. It was a grand scene of thousand-year-old stalactites.” Cai captured many of the caves on camera for his Zoudixian (literally “Immortals Walking the Earth”) photography project.
In one cave Cai photographed near Liuzhou, Guangxi, local villagers could enter for free and spend the afternoon singing along to their favorite love songs as they reverberate through the cavern. Another he came across was used like wine cellars to make various local spirits because the inside was cool and humid—perfect for fermentation. In a cave near Baise, Guangxi, Cai met a man in his late 30s who had been living and brewing sorghum liquor there for long enough that he couldn’t even remember. Cai shared the encounter on the social media platform Xiaohongshu in January: “He happily invited me for a drink and started dancing. Later he started to talk about tracking dragons in the mountains.”
Cai plans to snap the landscape in the provinces Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu next. The cave photos are just one part of Cai’s Zoudixian project, through which he aims to capture people who are spiritually adrift, the same way Cai imagines Daoists walked the land “seeking immortals (寻仙)” in ancient times. Cai says his cave photography also draws on another Daoist belief in “cave heaven (洞天)” where people could achieve immortality. Perhaps through his lens, we can see how the spirit of the immortals coexists with the mortals of today.
Photography by Cai Shanhai (蔡山海)
A man looking at a waterfall coming out from a cave halfway up the mountain in west Hunan province. Ancient Daoists believed some caves were inhabited by immortals.
In summer, children catch fish in the river surrounded by the karst peaks of Huaihua, Hunan province.
People hang out in a misty cave to avoid the heat of summer in Hunan province.
A man singing a love song in a cave near Liuzhou, Guangxi. This cave has been transformed into a karaoke bar.
Locals put up colorful lights around the stalactites to decorate the cave.
Nearby villagers enjoy to sing in the caves as the echo effect inside the cave naturally amplifies their singing.
A cave near Baise, Guangxi, is used as a wine cellar to store and brew cheap sorghum liquor.
A man who lives and works in the cave is posing for a photo in front of bottles of liquor.
This wine cellar sees only few visitors during cold weather. The cellar keeper immersed himself in dancing after several glasses of liquor.
Caverns of Culture: Leisure and Spirituality in China’s Karst Caves | Photo Story is a story from our issue, “Viral Attractions.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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