Reed Flute Cave

We continue the heading "Post from the past": The Reed Flute Cave is the largest and most picturesque of the karst caves in the Chinese tourist city of Guilin. But the colorful name of this ancient cave is nothing compared to the beauty of its halls.

Guilin is an ancient picturesque city located in the south of China. The Chinese themselves call Guilin "the most beautiful city in the Middle Kingdom."

Guilin has long established itself as a tourist center thanks to the wonderful nature.

Once there was an ocean on this place. Natural disasters forced the water to leave, raising to the surface fantastic mountains with outlandish gorges, crevasses, grottos and caves.

The Reed Flute Cave, part of a system of caves and tunnels with many fragile stalactites and stalagmites, is one of the most famous caves.

This karst cave goes 240 meters deep and the first tourists visited it... 1300 years ago.

The cave has been given a very apt name: hundreds of small stalactites hang from the vault, many of which resemble thin pipes.

The cave got its name due to the thickets of bamboo covering the surroundings of the hill. Bamboo from this place was used by the locals to produce a musical instrument - a flute.

The length of the route is almost 500 meters, at the turns of which fascinating pictures of bizarre formations of stalactites and stalagmites, piles of mountain formations and stone pillars open.

During the tour, which lasts an hour, movement inside the cave takes place along a U-shaped curve.

The illuminated stalactites form paintings, poetically named in the spirit of the "crystal palace of the dragon king" according to Chinese tradition.

Thanks to the unique illumination and reflection in the underground lake, the impression of frozen actions is created, which have poetic names according to Chinese tradition: "Crystal Palace", "Dragon Tower", "Pine in the Snow", "Dawn in the Lion Grove", "Red Threshold" and so on.

The cave was formed due to the destruction of quartz rocks by water.

Figuratively, the cave is called the palace of nature, the imagination draws pavilions, majestic palace chambers and paradise gardens with parks.

There is a legend that the cave was discovered thanks to a peasant who wandered in these surroundings and fell into a crevice. It turned out to be the entrance to the cave.

It is obvious that now the cave has a completely different look than when it was first visited by a person: now stalactites and stalagmites shimmer with various shades thanks to the bright illumination.

Gradually, the flute cave became a popular tourist attraction.

Inside, the cave is divided into several fabulous halls. In one of them there is a lake, one of the most beautiful underground in the world.

To the annoyance of many tourists, it is not easy to capture the local beauty: without special equipment, photos will not work, despite the illumination.

The Flute Cave is huge, it will not be difficult to get lost here.

During the tour, you can find many amazing stones here, which resemble the outlines of a mother with a child, then melons and vegetables.

Once inside the cave, it seems that I found myself in some other world, time and space.

The timeless local landscape has been inaccessible to Western tourists for a long time. Only in 1973, the city of Guilin was opened to foreign tourists, and quickly became one of the most popular tourist destinations.