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The abundant cavern resources plus people's increasing demands on health make southwest China a fine candidate for a world class cavern therapy base, experts said.



The cavern therapy refers to a treatment toward the respiratory, dermal and arthral diseases with help of the special climate in the cavern, said Chen Weihai, secretary general of China Geological Institute's cavern research institution.



"The air circulating in the cavern contains little dust or bacteria and it is cleaner than that in both the urban and the rural areas. The disparate temperature, humidity and anion constitutes a particular environment in the cavern," the expert said.



Chen said scientific research and many foreign practices have already shown that the pure and humid air together with the almost unvarying low temperature in the cavern can produce conspicuous effects in treating many diseases, especially the respiratory diseases.



Southwest China boasts the most abundant limestone cavern resources in the world, where there scatters tens of thousands of caverns. Some of the caverns have already been developed for tourism use but few are related with therapy.



Actually people began to realize the therapeutic functions of the cavern about half a century ago, Chen said.



Currently, the cavern therapy is developed in Germany, France and Austria and specialized cavern therapeutic associations have also been founded in these countries.



China made gropes on the therapy in some southern sanitariums years ago, but the attempt did not last for long.



As people's awareness of health raises, the cavern therapy has regained interests of the Chinese.



"The therapeutic values of the cavern have already drawn interests of some medical institutions and companies. Some non-governmental organizations in southwest China have also joined in the cavern therapy attempts," Chen said.