Reed Flute Cave
Reed Flute Cave is located in the northwest outskirts of the Guilin, 5 miles away from the downtown. It is in Mount Guangming, and in the hillside, there is a small entrance to the cave, where reed plants grow, and this plant can be made to flute, thus the cave was given such a name. The cave was found in 1959, and opened to tourist in 1962, and it is one of the best scenic spots in Guilin.
Reed Flute Cave is the typical karst landscape, and it is reputed for a large number of stalactites and stalagmites in different shapes, which is a masterpiece made by nature, and it is highly praised as the palace of natural arts. The formation of Reed Flute Cave has gone though a long time. One hundred million years ago, it is an underground lake, and then turns to a cave due to crustal movement and the lifting of mountain and the decline of underground water level. Water from rainfall falls into the cave and the magic-like interaction of water and rocks makes the miraculous rock formations in the cave.
The cave is 240 meters deep, and its tour distance is about 500 meters and tour time is about 40 minutes. In the cave, there are lots of rocks in different shapes, which are like exquisite artworks, and artificial lights are used to illuminate stalactites and stalagmites, which makes it like an underground shining palace and gives people a visual feast. It has tremendous stalactites, stalagmites, and stalagnates, in vivid and numerous shapes, which form over thirty partial attractions. There are must-sees like Shi ling zhao xia, and shui jing gong. Shi ling zhao xia presents a spectacular scenery made by lots of stalactites: it has steep mountains, lush forest formed by lots of high stalagnates, and lions. When the sun rises, a pride of lions are playing and enjoy themselves in the forest, and a lion in a bigger stature is guarding those lions. Shui jing gong or crystal palace, is the broadest place in the cave, having a biggest width of 93 meters, and a biggest heigh of 18 meters. It has a grand light hanging in the ceiling, and gives this hall a mysterious cover, and it has few stalactites, because rocks and stones in the ceiling are complete, and the crevice is small, water can't permeate in.
In the development of decades of years, service facilities in this scenic spot have been improved and it has a consulting center, lounge rooms, parking lot and so on. Outside the cave are Fanglian pool in the mountain foot, and a bridge linking Mount Guangming and Fanglian mountain, and Taohua river goes through the surrounding places, which enriches the tourism resources of this attractions.
Though it was opened to tourists in 1962, it has visitors since the Tang Dynasty(618 AD-907 AD), which is recorded by rock inscriptions and poems, and 77 rock inscriptions are found in the cave. After touring, some talents write poems to describe those spectacular rocks and the unraveled craftsmanship of the nature. The earliest inscription was carved in 790, and the tourists carved their names and tour time in astone. Most inscriptions don't have tour time. There is another cave next to Reed Flute Cave, and it is named Dayan, which has 93 inscriptions. Its inscriptions are clearer than those in Reed Flute Cave. 71 inscriptions are carved in the Ming Dynasty. Since its opening, many leaders of high level have visited this attraction, Reed Flute Cave, like Deng Xiaoping, and Richard Nixon. Those political leaders' tours give it another name, Guobin Cave which has a meaning that a cave is used to greet guests of state level.
