Tag Archives: Li River

The Reed Flute Cave is the largest and most impressive cave among Guilin’s caves

The Reed Flute Cave is located in the north-west of Guilin, about 5 kilometers from the city’s downtown area. The cave is famed for the odd-shaped Karst formations and became a tourist attraction to bring visitors into a kind of fairyland. The Cave is the largest and most impressive cave among Guilin’s caves, with its name originating from ancient times when reeds for making flutes and pipes were grown in the area; thus local people call it ‘Reed Flute Cave’.

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With a length of 240 meters, usually a trip to this cave will last about an hour. If you are interested in the Karst formations, it will take much longer for you to appreciate all of the uniquely shaped rocks and various-coloured stone pillars, given names like Mushroom Hill, Pines in the Snow, Sky-Scraping, Dragon Pagoda, Twin, Virgin Forests, and Red Curtain. Each of these rocks and pillars contain their own intruiging story. Moreover, there are also over 70 written ink inscription with histories of over 1200 years. These reveal that the cave has been an attraction since ancient times.
According to the geological research, the cave used to be an underground lake 600,000 years ago, and it gradually turned into the cave because of the rise of the mountain and decline of the water level. After the accumulation for millions of years, the spectacular scenery was formed.
As the largest and most impressive cave in Guilin, Reed Flute Cave is regarded as the Palace of Nature’s Art.Reed Flute Cave is famous for the marvelous spectacles formed by stalagmites, stalactites, stone columns, stone curtains and stone flowers. From the past to now, it attracts lots of famous people (including lots of presidents and officers) and all of them give high praise of the fantastic scenery. The cave is over 240 meters deep and 500 meters long. In the cave, under the function of different lighting facilities, those colorful and imposing stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, stone curtains and stone flowers look more beautiful.

Elephant Trunk Hill looks extraordinarily beautiful

Elephant Trunk Hill is called Xiàngbí Shān ( 象鼻山) in Chinese it is one of the main tourist attraction of the city. Its name derives from the circular cave (Water Moon Cave) going through the front of the mountain, making the Karst structure look like an elephant holding its trunk into the water.
A very popular destination, Elephant Trunk Hill (Xiangbi Shan) once appeared on Chinese currency bills. It is the symbol of Guilin, situated at the junction of Li River and Peach Blooming River in the center of Guilin city. It is a spectacular limestone karst hill, rising 55 meters over the river with naturally-shaped cave the bottom. It simply resembles an elephant dipping its snout into the river. At dusk, it looks extraordinarily beautiful. It is a masterpiece of karst landscape.


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The hill is in Elephant Trunk Hill Park. The trunk and body parts of the hill create a semi circle shaped gap called the Shuiyue Cave (Moon over the Water Cave). Water runs through the gap and at night creates a pretty image of a full moon with the reflection on the water which gives the cave its name and has been the inspiration for many Chinese stories and poems. There are important historical carvings and stone inscriptions in the cave which date back to the Tang dynasty (618-907) including a poem by Lu You, a great poet from ancient China.
The Puxian Pagoda on top of Elephant Trunk Hill was erected during the Ming Dynasty. It measures 14 meter in height and is shaped to represent the handle of a sword sticking out of the back of the Elephant after it has been killed. The Pagoda has two storeys, the second one with an inlay of the image of Bodhisattva Puxian (after which it is named). To get to the cave you have to take the stairs from the south-side of the mountain. From there it is also possible to continue the ascent to the top of the mountain where the Puxian Pagoda is located.
The most impressive feature of Elephant Trunk Hill is said to be the Shuiyue Cave (Moon over the Water Cave). It reflects of a round, moon like cave. The cave is between the elephant’s “trunk” and the “body”. On a moonlit night, the cave’s reflection looks like a full moon floating on the surface of the water. You will see an amazing sight of a moon in the sky, the moon in the hill and the moon on the water.

Yangshuo Fishing Festival, photo from 0773web.com

A Must-See Tradition of Yangshuo: Night Fishing

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It has long been a traditional way for fishermen to catch fish with fishing lanterns on the Li River at night in Yangshuo (a town near Guilin). Since 1999, this tradition has become the major part of a festival – Fishing Festival or Fishing Lantern Festival, which is hosted every November together with activities like fireworks, photographic contest, calligraphy contest, tug-of-war and so on.

The night fishing takes advantage of the natural habit of fish – they are easily be attracted by light at night. Fishermen hang lanterns on the ends of their bamboo crafts, draw the fish closer and closer, surround them with nets and let the trained cormorants dive into the water to catch them.

Yangshuo Night Fishing with Lanterns and Cormorants

Yangshuo Night Fishing with Lanterns and Cormorants

It’s really amazing when dozens of bamboo crafts are sailing on the water with lanterns lighting up the night, and cormorants flutter their wings and dive into the water chasing the fish, leaving a glimmering night with echoing sound.

Yangshuo Fishing Festival, photo from 0773web.com

If you arrive in Yangshuo, go and take part in this activity or festival, then you will be aware of that what you see are hundreds of times better than what I said here.