Famous cave diver missing for over 40 hours after plunge in China's underwater Everest

Famous Chinese cave diver Han Ting has been confirmed as missing at the Jiudun Tianchuang scenic spot in Hechi City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Monday.

Emergency department staff of Du'an County received reports of Han, aged 47, going missing at about 11am on Monday, with emergency response team now searching for the missing diver.

The Jiudun Tianchuang scenic spot is currently closed. And, a local official claimed that Han has been missing for over 40 hours after going diving on Saturday night.

Han was seen going into the water at about 11pm on Saturday and campers around the diving site and local villagers reported that many of them were waiting for him to resurface. However, Han didn't show up.

Han has participated in many diving rescue missions, according to officials of Daxing Township under the county. His diving team Lanqi (blue flag) has conducted many diving salvage operations at the site.

The Jiudun Tianchuang scenic spot is located in the upper reaches of the Chengjiang River in Jiudun Village, Daxing Township. During the flood season, there is a large overflow of water, which converges to form the Jiudun Lake, one of the main sources of the Chengjiang River.

With a depth of 212 meters, the spot still holds the world record for underwater cave diving, and is known as China's underwater "Mount Everest."

Han is China's first triple-qualified coach in recreational scuba diving, free diving, and technical diving. He helped in the creation of China's research diving system and is also the technical diving instructor of famous actor Wu Jing, according to the website of the China Exploration Association.

One of China's top technical divers, he has participated in shipwreck archeology and remains salvage multiple times, and has been in charge of important projects such as the exploration and salvage of the remains of Red Army martyrs in Jiuhai Well in Guangxi, as well as the search and salvage of the body of a deceased diver at a depth of 143 meters in the No. 2 Taohua Shuimu Cave in Du'an County, creating many cave diving depth records at home and abroad.

On April 27, Han created a new Asian cave diving depth record of 277.4 meters at Jiudun Tianchuang in 12.5 hours, just 9 meters short of the world record of 286 meters. Previously, he was the creator and holder of the Asian cave diving depth record of 234 meters.