And there they have remained, even after China was united under Communist rule, grinding out an existence of profound rural poverty and isolation. The area is in one of the poorest provinces in China. Over the past 20 years, though, the caves have become less secluded because of a steadily increasing trickle of tourists, who come to experience what local media have described as the last continuously inhabited cave in China. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyA cottage industry has popped up in which the cave dwellers earn extra money by renting out rooms in their homes, which over time have clustered within Zhong cave, a limestone cavern big enough to hold four American football fields. The hanger-like cave is so large that their wooden or bamboo-made residences form a small, subterranean village built along its undulating walls.

Source: New York Times May 13, 2018 08:48 UTC