The Significance and History of Karst Studies in China

Ford and Williams (1989) have said that in Europe the “Mediterranean Basin is the cradle of Karstic Studies”. In China, karst studies in general developed separately from the West. The relatively late discovery by outsiders of the Chinese karstlands was partly due to civil unrest and difficulties of travel in China. The Sino-Japanese war, followed by the revolution and then the “Cultural Revolution”, meant that there were few opportunities for scientists to work in China. Travellers and archaeologists, like Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein, worked in what is now Chinese central Asia in the 19th and early 20th centuries (Hedin 1898; Stein 1912). The first geological reconnaissances in N China were made by von Richthofen from 1866–1872, paying particular attention to the loess landscapes (von Richthofen 1877–1912). However, little attention was given to South China. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s that Western scientists made any contribution to the study of the limestones in China. The first European description of the tower karst is believed to have been given by Handel-Mazetti, a botanist in 1926 and discussed by the geographer, O. Lehmann (Handel-Mazetti 1926; Lehmann 1926). In fact, the botanists and “plant-hunters” were some of the most important travellers in S and W China in the early years of this century (Sweinfurth and Sweinfurth-Marby 1975 on Kingdom Ward). Much significant work was done by French geologists, including the Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin; de Chardin not only assisted in the excavation of the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian, but also studied the Devonian limestone sequences of S China and made the first section across the tower karst limestones of the Guangxi basin near Guilin in the 1930s (Teilhard de Chardin et al. 1935). Bouillard also surveyed the caves of Yunshui in the Shangfang mountains near Peking in 1924; these caves are developed in siliceous dolomites of the Wumishan formation, middle Proterozoic (Bouillard 1924). The American geologist, Barbour (1930) discussed travertines in N China.