Scaling new heights of popularity

"This year, seven new routes were set in the cave, and two of them are still on my list to tackle. I hope to return and take on those next time," said Song Xiao, a 29-year-old outdoor climbing enthusiast, standing at the entrance of Chuanshang Cave, which is located in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

This marks Song's second consecutive year climbing at the site, drawn to the unique natural features and technical demands of the routes.

Chuanshang Cave, part of the Getu River Scenic Area in Ziyun county, Anshun city of Guizhou province, is a massive natural cavern measuring 50 meters high, 70 meters wide and 137 meters long.

Perched high on a mountainside, the cave appears as a gaping hole, naturally bored into the rock over the course of millennia.

Below it lies an even larger cave, Dachuan Cave, that reaches 116m in height, 25m in width and stretches for 270m.

The two are connected by a tunnel, forming a unique "cave-within-a-cave" structure.

The Getu River area, with its intricate karst landscape, offers over 270 developed climbing routes ranging in difficulty from 5A to 9A+. This region is also known for its generations of Miao ethnic "spidermen" or goro in the Miao dialect, who traditionally practiced free solo climbing to collect swallow nests and fertilizer from cliff faces. This centuries-old skill, once essential for survival, has now evolved into a cultural performance at the scenic area.