The Father of Zhangjiajie's Giant Salamanders
Mention a cave and most people think of something dark and chilling. But what can a 600-meter cave be used for? In Sangzhi County, Hunan, a man named Wang Guoxing spent five years and poured in the tens of millions he had saved from turtle farming — all for a 600-meter cave. In this remote cave, he...
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
When people mention caves, the first impression is usually eerie, terrifying, and chilling; if it is a 600-meter cave, what could it be used for? A man named Wang Guoxing from Sangzhi County, Hunan, spent five years and poured in the tens of millions in assets he had accumulated from raising soft-shelled turtles, all for a 600-meter cave. In this sparsely visited cave, what earth-shaking undertaking could he possibly have?
This is the world-famous Zhangjiajie Seven-Eye Spring Nature Reserve. Deep in these mountains lives a family. Beneath this white building is a man-made cave over 600 meters long, hiding a fortune worth hundreds of millions.
Wang Guoxing: "At most three or four years from now, our annual output can reach at least over 700 million."
Wang Guoxing is the owner of this cave. The dark, damp cave seems mysterious and unfathomable. Walking inside, what the reporter saw was a great shock. It turned out that in this mysterious cave, tens of thousands of giant salamanders—a national second-class protected animal—were being bred.
Wang Guoxing: "The market price is very high. Here in Zhangjiajie it's generally 2,000 yuan per jin, and in Beijing it's 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per jin."
The giant salamander, known scientifically as Andrias davidianus, is a rare aquatic animal unique to China and is under national second-class protection. How could there be so many giant salamanders here? Is Wang Guoxing's breeding of these salamanders legal? Through investigation, the reporter found that Wang Guoxing not only has a giant salamander breeding license and a business utilization license issued by the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, but has also obtained six national patents, including one for artificial breeding methods for giant salamanders. Locals call him the Father of the Giant Salamander.
Wang Guoxing was once Zhangjiajie's famously known Soft-Shelled Turtle King. From 1993, when he began breeding soft-shelled turtles, to 2000, he had accumulated wealth of over 20 million yuan.
Just as relatives and friends around him were filled with envy, Wang Guoxing suddenly abandoned his booming soft-shelled turtle business and vanished into the vast mountains of Zhangjiajie. In May 2000, Wang Guoxing made a decision: in the desolate mountains, he would spend a huge sum to dig a cave over 600 meters long. He wanted to fulfill a long-cherished wish—breeding giant salamanders.
The giant salamander is one of the oldest amphibians on Earth, having existed as early as 350 million years ago. Because its call resembles a baby's cry, it is named the "baby fish" (wawa yu). It likes to live in rock crevices in the mountains and in the caves of cool streams. Through hundreds of millions of years of Earth's hardships, it has never gone extinct.
Hunan is one of the main producing areas of the giant salamander. The Wuling Mountain region, centered on Zhangjiajie and covering tens of thousands of square kilometers, is the original habitat of the giant salamander.
Wang Guoxing's son Wang Jianwen: "In the past, when there were many in this river, you could casually turn over a small stone and find three or four giant salamanders inside."
Wang Guoxing: "A child of seven or eight could catch one or two hundred giant salamanders a day—there were that many."
The giant salamander escaped natural disasters, but not man-made ones. Because of its high nutritional and practical value, by the 1990s the black market price of giant salamanders reached over 2,000 yuan per jin. Although in 1986 the giant salamander was listed as a national second-class protected animal, some people still took the risk of poaching them. Zhangjiajie's unique giant salamander was on the brink of extinction. At this time, Wang Guoxing decided to save the giant salamander. In addition, according to the national Wildlife Protection Law, second-generation artificially bred giant salamanders, injured individuals, and those unable to reproduce may be sold on the market.
Wang Guoxing: "The second generation means the grandchildren of wild giant salamanders; their father is the first generation."
Ding Yunyong, Director of the Zhangjiajie Science and Technology Bureau, Hunan Province: "According to the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture, the second generation of giant salamanders can be commercialized."
Wang Guoxing felt that this was a breeding industry with broad prospects, and its value was immeasurable. But the hatching rate of artificially bred giant salamanders was very low, only 2% to 5%.
Liu Zeyou, County Head of Sangzhi County, Hunan Province: "Because there is a time gap in the mating of male and female giant salamanders, and their spawning periods cannot be concentrated in one period, this time gap restricts their fertilization."
In order to overcome the breeding difficulties of the giant salamander, starting in the 1980s, national research institutions and some aquatic experts in Hunan Province made large-scale investments and conducted research, but the results came to nothing. Yet Wang Guoxing wanted to dig a cave to breed giant salamanders—an unprecedented thing in the history of giant salamander breeding.
Wang Guoxing: "Everyone said, people dig tunnels for railways and highways, but no one has ever heard of digging an artificial tunnel to raise fish—to raise giant salamanders."
Wang Guoxing's son Wang Jianwen: "At that time, we no longer had to worry about our livelihood. To put all the money into digging a cave, just to breed giant salamanders—we really couldn't understand it."
Wang Guoxing, who made such a crazy move, was considered insane. Others used their money for real estate or stocks, but he stubbornly threw the money he had earned from breeding soft-shelled turtles into the water.
Wang Guoxing: "No matter what you say, I must go all the way to the end, and I must breed giant salamanders in large numbers—on a large scale."
Wang Guoxing went alone into the mountains and spent more than a month searching for a place suitable for digging a cave. What exactly made Wang Guoxing willing to invest tens of millions of yuan and insist on using the method of digging a cave to breed giant salamanders?
Wang Guoxing: "Without first-hand information, I couldn't take this risk. After five or six years of observation and exploration, I said I had confidence."
What kind of first-hand information made Wang Guoxing so confident? It turned out that when he was breeding soft-shelled turtles, he had already begun to get involved in breeding giant salamanders. Because he could not successfully breed the fry, he had never been able to achieve scale.
Wang Guoxing traveled to all the large and small natural karst caves in Zhangjiajie, searching for traces of wild giant salamanders to observe the natural breeding environment and breeding patterns. The karst caves formed by Zhangjiajie's karst landscape were full of hidden dangers. One day, Wang Guoxing entered a very deep karst cave, and an accident happened.
Wang Guoxing: "The lamp broke inside. I hadn't prepared for it—I had brought only one lamp. After I went in, the cave was bumpy, with lots of rocks, and the turns were very sharp. Once inside, I couldn't feel the path, couldn't see the path, and could only hear the stream water rushing. I couldn't get out either."
The lamp went out, and the karst cave, like an underwater maze, was pitch black. After groping for several hours, Wang Guoxing felt as if he had been circling along a stone pillar the whole time.
Wang Guoxing: "Later I tore my clothes into strips and stuck them on the rocks, and slowly, slowly felt my way out."
Wang Guoxing tore his clothes into cloth strips. Whenever he felt a stone pillar, he tied a strip to it, and finally found the exit of the karst cave. This narrow escape from death led Wang Guoxing to find giant salamanders he had not seen for years—and not just one, but a group.
Two days later, Wang Guoxing entered this karst cave again. This time he also brought a quilt and dry rations; he was going to live in the cave to observe the giant salamanders.
Wang Guoxing's son Wang Jianwen: "He built a straw shed up there. He lived there most of the time, and we would sometimes bring him grain and dry rations."
Wang Guoxing persisted in this way of life for five years. He discovered that giant salamanders laid eggs and hatched fry entirely in dark, damp caves. The water quality not only had to be clean, but also had to be a constant-temperature environment. The most important point was that they could not be exposed to light. With this first-hand information, Wang Guoxing came up with the bold idea of digging into the mountain to breed giant salamanders.
Over the course of a whole year, Wang Guoxing finally completed a cave 602 meters long, 5 meters wide, and 3 meters high. Pipes were used to channel spring water from outside the cave into it, creating flowing-water breeding. Throughout the year, the temperature inside the cave remained constant between 15 and 20 degrees, very suitable for the growth of giant salamanders. Giant salamanders are carnivorous animals; fish and animal offal are their best bait. They are fed once every two days, and their food intake is not large.
Wang Guoxing's son Wang Jianwen: "A giant salamander of over 20 jin only needs to eat a small piece like this. Eating 3 to 4 jin of fish can produce one jin of giant salamander growth. In our environment, they basically don't get sick. The bait must not carry pathogens; other than that, no drugs are needed for prevention."
In the autumn of 2002, in Wang Guoxing's constant-temperature cave, over a thousand giant salamanders were bred. His techniques for breeding and reproducing giant salamanders were recognized by experts and authoritative departments.
Liu Yun, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: "The fertilization rate is over 70%, and the hatching rate is also over 70%. This figure should be called a record-setting number, so I express my position: I support this project. I support it."
By 2003, the giant salamanders bred by Wang Guoxing gradually entered maturity, and large-scale breeding seemed just around the corner. But at this time, a disaster arrived unexpectedly.
Summer is the rainy season. On this day, a rainstorm rarely seen in decades fell continuously for a day and a night. At 11 p.m., Wang Guoxing came to the cave entrance, and the scene before him shocked him greatly.
Wang Guoxing: "When I looked, the water in the cave was at least over 1.5 meters deep. It even washed away that iron gate—that iron gate weighed over 2,000 jin. It was washed into the river."
Because there were many connecting holes between the inside and outside of the cave, a large amount of rainwater poured in from the mountain, and the narrow cave surged into a torrent. Over a thousand giant salamanders were scattered by the flood.
Wang Guoxing: "I stripped off my clothes and went in. I grabbed one with this hand and one with that hand. I saved about several. In the end, I saw a fish, a female fish."
This was a breeding giant salamander weighing over 30 jin. Cultivating a breeding fish takes several years, even more than ten years. This breeding giant salamander was being swept out of the cave by the flood.
Wang Guoxing: "It floated on the water, its mouth wide open. It was slippery when I grabbed it. I lunged two or three times but couldn't catch it. In the end, I had no choice but to put my hand—this hand—into its mouth, and it bit down on me in one bite."
The giant salamander has sharp teeth, and once it bites something, it won't let go.
Wang Guoxing: "After the giant salamander bites something, it spins around 360 degrees. After spinning, it will bite through all your muscles and veins."
Wang Guoxing endured the severe pain and managed to carry this giant salamander weighing over 30 jin into the breeding pond, but he had a finger bitten off.
Wang Guoxing: "I fainted at the time. The blood vessel, this area, right here—the artery was bitten through. I lost at least over 1,000 CC of blood. The temperature in May was very high, so it rotted."
Wang Guoxing's wife, Zhong Meinong: "It took several months to heal, several months to grow back."
More than 1,400 giant salamanders were swept away by the flood, with losses of over 8 million yuan. Wang Guoxing was nearly bankrupted. To keep going, he raised funds from all sides. Over several years, Wang Guoxing went from being a wealthy local man to being deeply in debt.
There is always a way out. In 2005, after on-site verification by numerous experts, Wang Guoxing's giant salamander breeding farm obtained a business utilization license issued by the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. At that time, the market price of adult giant salamanders reached over a thousand yuan, even several thousand yuan per kilogram.
Wang Guoxing: "Breeding fish sell for even more. Right now, a breeding fish about 5 or 6 centimeters long sells for 800 yuan each."
In 2006, Wang Guoxing had already bred over 20,000 giant salamanders in his cave, making it a well-known giant salamander breeding base. The breeding giant salamander he caught in the flood had grown to over 130 jin. Although he lost part of a finger for it, Wang Guoxing still felt very gratified.
Wang Guoxing: "It laid over 1,000 eggs, and about 1,000 fry hatched. That fish, at current value, is worth over 1 million."
Now, Wang Guoxing has opened a Golden Salamander Hotel, bringing giant salamanders—which the state permits to be sold—to the dining table, attracting numerous domestic and international guests to come and taste them.
Hotel chef Zhou Yuzhuo: "This giant salamander is 14 jin. We generally sell it at 2,800 yuan per jin, so this one would come to over 30,000 yuan."
Hotel manager Zhang Shile: "Giant salamanders like this can only be slaughtered after experts have signed off. Then we sell them to customers."
Customer Liu Dongxia: "It's very fresh, and it's fragrant, and it's also quite tender, with a slightly glutinous texture."
Customer Shi Shuanglin: "I think if he dared to sell it so openly in a hotel, if it weren't second-generation offspring, he wouldn't dare to do this. So I eat with peace of mind, and I eat happily."
In addition to the cave, Wang Guoxing expanded another giant salamander breeding farm. He also motivated some local farmers to breed giant salamanders and signed buyback contracts with them.
Farmer Zhao Jixin: "I now raise over a thousand giant salamanders. The big ones weigh 5 to 8 kilograms. If I do the math, I might earn several million yuan a year."
Farmer Wang Guoda: "I raise them in the bathroom. I have seven or eight. These are fry I got in May 2006. When I bought them, each was about 4 liang. Now the big ones look to be about 1 jin."
Currently, Wang Guoxing is working with Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other institutions to research and develop deep-processed giant salamander products. His greatest dream is to turn the giant salamander into a major industry, enriching himself and also enriching the folks back home.
Liu Zeyou, head of Sangzhi County, Hunan Province: "If the expected goals are achieved, the enterprise's output value won't just be one or two hundred million. The tax revenue the enterprise brings to our county could reach forty to fifty million, while our county's current fiscal revenue is just over sixty million. So this enterprise will double our county's fiscal revenue."
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