ABSTRACT
Knowledge on the exploitation and utilisation of groundwater had a long history in ancient China. The oldest well discovered in Zhejiang Province was built before 57003710 years BC. As early as 2000 years ago, the “karez’’, also known as the “kanr-well’’, for irrigation in desert areas and the exploitation of deep brine-wells for salt mines in the Sichuan red basin are known to have been used (Figure 1). A great deal of information about springs may be found in various encyclopedic and geographic writings. The book Erya is the earlies record whiich was written in 200 BC. A good description of the springs occurs in the early 6th century in the book entitled “Records of Strange Things’’. Xu Xiake (1586-1641) was an explorer of the regions of China. He described the characters of karst cave and physiography in the south-western part of China in his travel notes. His discoveries on karst geology were advanced for that time.
