As heatwaves sweep across China during the summer, the country's southwestern karst regions are turning their naturally cool caves into unconventional tourist attractions, offering visitors a respite from the heat while creating new business opportunities.

Guided by a local expert, tourist Chang Ting recently entered a natural cave in Guizhou Province. After walking about 100 metres along a narrow, rocky passage, she lost mobile phone reception.

“It felt like stepping into a crack in time, and all the noise faded away,” said Chang, who is from Xi'an, capital of northwestern Shaanxi Province.

Cave exploration has emerged as a new summer tourism trend among young Chinese travellers. The growing interest is providing visitors with novel sightseeing experiences while helping boost local consumption.

Videos featuring cave exploration in Guizhou have gone viral on major lifestyle and short-video platforms, collecting more than 5 million likes, while related topics have attracted hundreds of millions of views.

More than 60 percent of mountainous Guizhou is covered by karst formations, with 42,800 cave entrances identified across the province.

Authorities and businesses are making use of the geological resources by developing different types of cave tourism experiences. These include adventure activities involving challenging sports, underground river tours designed for photography and social media, as well as more leisurely cave visits featuring themed dining areas.

In Guiding County, veteran cave explorers Song Yuanqiao and Zhao Fei have launched an adventure project in Yanzidong, or Sparrow Cave. Drawing on the cave's natural passages, they have created activities including zip lines, tightrope bridges and via ferrata climbing routes.

To transform cave exploration from a niche hobby into a professional tourism operation, Song and Zhao travelled to Hungary, Spain and other countries to study cave route design, industry standards and safety management.

Song recalled that cave exploration attracted little public attention in 2018. By 2023, however, inquiries about cave routes had increased sharply as more inexperienced tourists began showing interest.

“We never imagined it would become so popular now,” he said.

A cafe has been opened at the cave entrance, while rock-climbing routes extend deep into the cave. Since beginning trial operations in late April, the attraction has received more than 2,000 visitors.

The growing industry is also creating new employment opportunities for young people in local communities.

“Sports graduates like me only had jobs as ball coaches before, but now we have more choices,” said 23-year-old Lei Yinggui, a cave tour instructor.

The trend has also encouraged some migrant workers to return to their hometowns and start businesses.

Peng Wei returned from Shenzhen last year and opened a cave cafe with former classmates in Xiuwen County.

“The longer I work away, the more I miss my hometown's scenery,” Peng said.

The entrepreneurs have kept the cave's natural surroundings largely intact, using minimal decoration. The cafe has become popular for its coffee served in the naturally cool environment, with sales reaching as high as 600 cups a day during peak periods.

Guizhou is not the only part of China turning its natural cool-climate resources into tourism opportunities. Heilongjiang in the country's northeast has developed forest-based summer retreats, while Xizang has introduced high-altitude ecological getaways. Xinjiang, meanwhile, is promoting grassland and mountain tourism.

The growing summer tourism market is also in line with China's broader policy to encourage consumer spending.

Last month, China unveiled a plan to expand consumption during the 15th Five-Year Plan period from 2026 to 2030. The plan encourages local governments to develop distinctive tourism products, including summer retreats, winter warm-weather destinations and coastal holidays.

At the same time, Guizhou is taking steps to ensure that the development of cave tourism does not harm the fragile karst environment. The province has introduced a management plan covering cave classification and registration, ecological protection zones, orderly development and comprehensive supervision.

“Karst caves are nonrenewable geological heritage. Proper resource management is the key to turning underground wonders into local benefits, and we must adhere to development within protection,” said Zhang Zaijie, director of the Green Development Strategy Research Institute at Guizhou University of Finance and Economics.