From caves to cafes: China's 'cool resources' fan summer tourism

The booming cave tourism trend has brought new job opportunities for young locals. "Sports graduates like me only had jobs as ball coaches before, but now we have more choices," says Lei Yinggui, 23, a cave tour instructor.

The cave exploration trend has also inspired many people to return home and start their own businesses.

Returning from the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, last year, Peng Wei opened a cave cafe with his former classmates in Xiuwen county. "The longer I was away, the more I missed my hometown's scenery," Peng says.

They left the cave's natural landscape mostly untouched, adding minimal decoration. Now, tourists line up for their unique, waterfall-cooled coffee. The cafe sells up to 600 cups of coffee daily at peak time.

Beyond Guizhou's cave resorts, Heilongjiang province has developed summer forest getaways, and the Xizang autonomous region's plateau area has rolled out high-altitude eco-retreats, translating its distinctive cool-climate resources into sustainable revenue through tourism.

The booming summer tourism aligns with the broader top-level national policy guidelines aimed at boosting consumption.

Last month, China released guidelines to expand consumption for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), encouraging local governments to enrich distinctive tourism products, such as summer cooling retreats or winter warm-weather getaways.

To balance cave tourism with ecological protection, Guizhou has introduced a new management plan for its karst caves, covering cave classification and filing, ecological red-line setting and full-chain supervision.

"Karst caves are non-renewable geological heritage. Proper resource management is the key to turning underground wonders into local benefits, and we must adhere to development within protection," says Zhang Zaijie, director of the green development strategy research institute at Guizhou University of Finance and Economics.

XINHUA