GUE Project: Discovering China

Two separate GUE scouting missions to Chinese caves in 2008 provide an opportunity to organize equipment, scout diving locations and develop community relationships. Unfortunately a November project is met with terrible diving conditions as heavy rains leave the caves undiveable. However, dry conditions eventually prevail and a GUE exploration team travels to China in February, 2009 to begin a detailed review of the region. The GUE team includes: Jarrod Jablonski, Casey McKinlay, David Rhea, Mark Garland, Gideon Liew and Andrew Cronan. The team is joined by David Deng from China and will focus upon outlining the complexity of the local caves in an attempt to outline realistic goals as well as necessary resources in the exploration of China’s massive cave systems.

Chinese government support, preliminary GUE success and a developing appreciation for the enormity of China’s massive cave systems encourage GUE to assemble a base of operations and a sustained series of GUE exploration projects. In addition to the unique potential for exploration, China is an ideal place to expand development of GUE Project Baseline. This conservation initiative calls for the development of local communities designed to support the long-term conservation of sensitive aquatic resources. The GUE team finds difficult conditions as they began documenting a complex series of massive chambers and remarkable dry caves. Preparations are underway for more extensive exploration in December, 2009 with a range of exciting developments detailed in an upcoming issue of Quest magazine.