Features and exploitation of karst cave tourism resources in Jiangxi Province

Exploitation and utilization of karst caves is the focus of show caves, and the rational use of karst caves plays an important role in promoting the development of regional tourism industry. Jiangxi Province lies on the southern bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It has a total area of 166,900 square kilometers and contains rich ecotourism resources, with a coverage rate of up to 90 %. The landforms in Jiangxia relatively complete, located in an irregular ring structure, and are mainly comprised of mountains and hills. The epi-karst are mainly characterized by karst hills, residual hills, isolated hills, stone teeth, karren, karst doline and karst depression without peculiar formations. However, the endo-karst have a wonderful array of shapes and formations, which is one of the dominant tourism resources in Jiangxi. Relying on the collected data and some fieldwork, karst cave distribution and features were analyzed and the tourism development model and countermeasures were discussed. Thirty-one show caves are located throughout 28 counties of 9 cities, and concentrated in the northeast and the west of the province. The cave landscapes are peculiar and some have a long history of development with high scientific and cultural value. According to a comprehensive analysis of the main tourism factors such as show caves’ features, locations, regional economic development, the development pattern of show caves in Jiangxi may be classified into three types: independent, combined and supporting. The developed countermeasures are correspondingly themed development, reasonable travel planning, combining karst cave tourism and exploration and tourism promotion.