Reed Flute Cave

Reed Flute Cave is located in the northwest of Guilin City, 5 kilometers away from the center of the city. It is one of the most extraordinary sceneries in Guilin. These remarkable scenes in the cave could undoubtedly evoke breathless admiration from domestic and foreign visitors. The length of the Reed Flute Cave is 240 meters. According to a legend, Reed Flute Cave got its name because people believed that the reed by the cave's mouth could be made into flutes. Its name is explained by the fact that reeds for making flutes and pipes have been grown in this region since ancient times.

This dripstone cave is 790 feet deep, and a visitor will walk for some 550 yards through a zigzagging sea of stalactites and stalagmites in dazzling colors. Offering a majestic fairyland of karst caves with landscape and rural scenery, there are large numbers of stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, stone curtains, and stone flowers, all glistening in colorful lights. Some of them were given names such as Pines in the Snow, Mushroom Hill, Dragon Pagoda, Sky-Scraping Twin, Virgin Forests, Red Curtain, etc. One grotto is called The Crystal Palace of the Dragon King--an area that resembles a miniature Guilin. Thus, the cave is highly praised as the 'Huge Art Palace of the Nature'. Tourists began to pay their visits here in the Tang Dynasty. Over 70 wall inscriptions from the Tang Period (618-907) bear eloquent witness to the cave's long history. At present, there are 77 stone inscriptions through the ages inside the cave since the opening of the cave in 1959.