Shihua Limestone Cave situated at Nancheying Village, Fangshan District, 15km away from downtown Beijing. It is also known as Qianzhen Cave (meaning the place where truth is hidden) for the cave is deep and long await for further explorations. Shihua means stone flower given to various cauliflower-shaped crystal-clear stalactites. The number of the stalactites in the cave is the largest in China and it is an important site for geological research and scientific education. The cave is one of the most famous limestone caves in China besides Reed Flute Cave in Guilin, Jade Cave in Fujian and Yaolin Cave in Hangzhou. It is a 4-A scenic spot considered one of the best limestone caves in China and was awarded “the best solution cavity in China” in 2005. The Cave falls into seven layers with the top four open to the public.The bottom layer is an underground river several meters below the earth’s surface. 10 000 to 50 000 years old moon milks, pure white formations in the shape of a lotus, are prominent within the first and second layers. Shihua Limestone Cave is also known for the thinnest and largest stone shields in China. The largest shield is 1.2m high with a diameter of 2.6m. The thinnest shield is only seven millimeters thick. 
Shihua Limestone Cave Story:
1. Shihua Limestone Cave
It is said that a large amount a treasures were buried on the foot of the beautiful DaFangShan southwest of Beijing. For all the time local people widely circulate a saying that the treasure is hidden somewhere beneath the mountain. So where exactly is the mysterious treasure? The folk story holds it that it was around the village of Nanche Camp. There were many stone mountains in the Nanche Camp area where neither trees nor grass could grow due to the lack of soil, let alone crops. Facing this difficult situation, the villagers were still unwilling to leave their homes. Poverty made them gather together to discuss what to do to solve the problem of supporting their families and to study the way of saving the entire village. Days and Nights had passed, but they still couldn’t come up with a single idea. Finally, someone suggested that all villagers move to a better place where people could settle down and survive. However this suggestion was not favored by most villagers because almost everyone believed that there must be some reason for their ancestors to choose to live in Nanche Camp village, the problem was that they were unable to figure out their forefathers’ intention, so they were stuck here. There were also someone thought that maybe somewhere in this poverty-stricken area buried some treasures which so far hadn’t been discovered. These words arouse great response among the villagers, and they all decided to find out the treasure, hoping to bring forever good to their beloved homes. And they were willing to appoint the one who found the treasure as their village leader. They began their searching action at once. All villagers took whatever tools they had and went from east mountain to west mountain, from north hill to south hill, in fact the searching area covered almost every single inch of the land that belonged to the village, but nothing was found, nothing! When they met in the evening, as they agreed at the previous meeting, only one man did not show up. People waited and waited and pinned all their hope on the man. What happened to him? It turned out that this man looked for the treasure place carefully for a whole day without eating or drinking, and when he came to the foot of the north hill (where the current Shihua Limestone locates), he heard a faint pattering sound of something dropping from a high place downwards. Then he saw a thin swallet where the sound came from. He ran near to the rock excitedly when he again heard a dulcet sound, he stopped and found out the sound was caused by several coins falling down to the bottom of the swallet. He put these money into his pocket and memorized the place where the coins coming out, then he went back joyfully to tell his county-fellows the great news. On hearing this, all villagers were as happy as a lark because they did not need to move to another place any longer. So all of them went after the man with bright fire torches, but unfortunately when they arrived at the site, the swallet was gone. The man was anxious to know the reason, and so were the villagers. They all began to look for the swallet. After three days, there was still no sign of it. On the third day there was a sound saying “Stop looking for the treasure place, there is no using continuing like this because I have closed my coffer. All of you are brave to protect your home, so you already have the treasure in your hearts!” After that ages have passed, the god was finally touched by the generations of these hard-working villagers and granted them the Shihua Limestone Cave as the special treasure place for them!
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