Statistical analysis of show cave scenic areas (spots) in China

China has rich show cave resources. Show cave scenic areas (spots) develop fast, but basic data of show caves updates slowly. It is difficult using the old data of show caves (analysis in 2005) to serve the academic research and development management of cave tourism. In order to solve this problem, this paper makes a statistical analysis on the basic data of Chinese show caves. The geographical scope of the statistics involves 31 provincial administrative regions in mainland China, excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region. Cave tourism columns have been searched over to find out numbers, quality, opening time and spatial distribution, development themes, and ticket prices of show caves in China through Chinese karst cave database, scenic spot lists of Chinese provinces and cities, Tong Cheng web site (www.17u.net), Xin Xin travel web site (www.cncn.com), and other related websites and newspapers. Analyzing these data by Excel and ArcGIS10.3 leads to the conclusions as follows,until July 2016, there are 364 show cave scenic areas and 344 show cave scenic spots (708 in total) in mainland China, including 177 A-grade show cave areas. And the distribution of them is across the nation，including 29 provincial administrative regions, except Shanghai and Ningxia. Show cave scenic areas play an important role in tourism. They include 2 parts in world natural heritage, 6 parts in world geological park, 24 parts in national geological park and 26 parts in national scenic area. The opening of show cave areas (spots) began in the 1970s and has a history of more than 40 years. From 1980 to 2008, many show cave areas (spots) have been developed, with fragmented time distribution. Regional karst geological backgrounds and economic development levels are different. The spatial distribution of show cave scenic areas (spots) has a trend of condensation, especially in the southwest, middlesouth, southern and eastern part of China. The developing themes of show cave scenic areas can be summarized as geological tourism, historic sites, religious activities, health care, under-ground river rafting, science education, and other creative types. Ticket prices of 5A-, 4A-, 3A-, and 2A-grade show cave scenic areas are 129, 86.16, 53.09, and 37.19 yuan RMB, respectively, and are higher than other ordinary scenic areas with same grades.