Accordingly, the world's largest cave, Son Doong in Quang Binh province has been selected for the first position in the list of 25 great new places to see in the 21st century by the Smithsonian.

The US’ magazine described “The cave has ceilings so high (600 feet) they could accommodate the Washington Monument. Its widest expanses (450 feet) could fit a pair of Boeing 747s side by side. A shimmering blue river runs through it. Most spectacularly, a jungle flourishes under shafts of sunlight in stretches where the ceiling fell in long ago. The cave is more than five miles long—about five times longer than its nearest competitor for the world’s longest, Deer Cave in Sarawak, Malaysia”.

The Smithsonian list also includes Cern, the God particle laboratory in Switzerland, a space line in New Mexico, a gorilla national park in East Africa, the perfect place for watching stars in Chile, ice caves in Alaska and others.

Located in Quang Binh Province’s Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, Son Doong Cave, which means “mountain river cave”, was recognized as a world natural heritage site by UNESCO in 2003.

The cave entrance was firstly discovered in 1991 by a local man, Ho Khanh and then explored by a team of British cavers. The scientists believe Son Dong cave was formed 2-5 million years ago. Son Doong is at least 6.5 kilometres long, 200 metres wide and 150 metres high. Its largest chamber is a whopping 250 metres tall.

At present, Quang Binh Provincial People’s Committee have permitted Oxalis Adventure Tours to operate the tour of exploring Son Doong cave. The five day and four night tour costs US$3,000 a person. Each tour has a maximum of 10 visitors, totaling a maximum of 500 tourists for the entire year. Tour of exploring Son Doong Cave runs through February to August.

By Nhu Y