After his divorce, Chinese farmer Xu Wenyi longed for a means to escape reality. So he set out on an epic challenge – to dig his own cave dwelling in the side of a hill. It was back-breaking work, but he kept at it for six long years, until his cave home was finally ready.
Xu, now 57, has been living in his cave for over a decade. Located in a mountain in Xiangtan County, in China’s Hunan Province, it measures 100 ft deep and 13 ft wide. In fact, it’s more like a tiny apartment, complete with concrete-reinforced walls and a front door. The interiors are pretty neat too, with an 85-square foot living room and a stone kitchen. Xu has even dug out alcoves in the walls, to use as shelves for his belongings. He has a chicken coop inside, and he’s made himself a garden of pine and cypress trees outside.
Xu admits that the cave gives him all the peace and quiet he needs and he gets plenty fresh air and exercise to boot. Going by the pictures, he truly does seem a happy man!
Interestingly, cave homes are actually quite popular in some parts of China, like Shanxi Province, where about 30 million people live in houses dug into hills of porous yellow soil.
In the past,we’ve featured several other amazing cave dwellings, like the awesome Caveland, or the underground maze dug by Costa Rica’s “Mole Man”.
Photos: Xinhua/Long Hongtao
via China Daily
