This attraction introduction is compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · Scenic Spots section). Ticket prices, opening hours, transportation, and contact information mentioned in the text may be outdated. Please refer to the latest official announcements from the scenic area before traveling; some content consists of historical background/cultural introductions and is for reference only.
Dripping Water Cave is located in a narrow valley about four kilometers west of Mao Zedong's bronze statue. In the cave area are emerald peaks and green ridges, dense forests and tall bamboo, mountain flowers and wild grasses, dancing butterflies and singing birds; the natural scenery is elegantly peerless. The Mao Family Genealogy praised it thus: "A hook of flowing water, a fist of mountain, a tiger crouching and dragon coiling in this place; spiritual elegance gathers here but none recognize it, the stone bridge like a lock through many passes."
In June 1959, Mao Zedong returned to his hometown after an absence of 32 years and came to swim in the Shaoshan Reservoir at the mouth of Dripping Water Cave. Moved by the moment, he casually said to Zhou Xiaozhou, Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee: "Xiaozhou, build a few thatched houses in this mountain valley; when I am old I'll come and stay awhile. The Central-South Bureau has some small meetings..." Thus the Dripping Water Cave villa came to be built.
The villa was first built in 1960, and its architectural form is similar to the structure of the buildings in Zhongnanhai, Beijing. In June 1966, Mao Zedong came south on an inspection tour to Shaoshan and stayed in Building No. 1 for 11 days. On July 8 of that year, he wrote a letter in Wuhan referring to this place as "a cave in the West." In 1970, the Ouyang Hai Hero Company built a 100-meter-long air-raid shelter behind the villa. On one side of the tunnel are earthquake-proof rooms, command rooms, and other military facilities. At each end of the tunnel are thick, heavy iron doors nearly a foot thick and weighing several tons, equipped with automatic controls. Even if an atomic bomb were detonated outside, the command system inside and the safety of the personnel within would not be harmed.
The "Western Cave" was kept under extremely strict secrecy and was once very mysterious; very few people knew of it. In the autumn of 1986, with the approval of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, it was opened to the outside world. The three core parts of the Dripping Water Cave scenic area are: the villa series centered on Building No. 1; to the west, the Huxieping landscape series mainly featuring Mao Zedong's ancestral graves, the tiger sculpture, the Tiger Pavilion, and Dripping Water Clear Sound; and to the east, the Longtou Mountain landscape series mainly featuring the graves of Mao Zedong's great-grandparents, the Three-Tiered Dragon Spring, the Running Dragon Spring Pool, and Guanyin's Distant View.
The Dripping Water Cave scenery combines the divine beauty of creation and gathers the grand events of human culture, and thus is renowned at home and abroad, attracting streams of visitors. Party and state leaders such as Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao once gladly visited. This "Western Cave," hailed by people as Hunan's "pearl of landscape," has received more than 15 million domestic and international visitors in the 20 years since opening. The renowned Party history expert Feng Wenbin praised the Dripping Water Cave scenery thus: "A land of spiritual beauty in the Three Xiang, within the cave another world."
