Reed Flute Cave

Why Reed Flute Cave is special
China has more caves than any other nation. Most travelers consider the Reed Flute Cave (situated just outside the city of Guilin) to be the most interesting.

Reed Flute Cave tips and insights
Rock formations
Reed Flute Cave has remarkable stalactites, stalagmites and other rock formations in a myriad of fanciful shapes.

Popular for over 1,000 years
The cave was popular with tourists and poets about 1300 years ago during the Tang Dynasty. Some wrote inscriptions on the cave walls, which can be seen today.

Modern day Reed Flute Cave shortcomings

• Tour guide bullhorns
  The loud, disturbing sound of many tour guides using bull horns inside an enclosed space ruins the natural serenity of a cave.
  
• Wrong focus
  Tour guides overly focus on what the formations resemble (birds, animals, flowers, what have you) at the expense of conveying the beauty of the formations and explaining how they evolved. Taking the "use your imagination" approach is good, but it can be overdone.
  
• Lighting
  Many formations are overly illuminated with multi-colored lights, to the point of being somewhat kitschy. This masks and distracts from the cave's natural beauty.

Reflecting pool
This pool enchants (unless a previous visitor has made ripples by mindlessly waving his hand in the pool's water).

Size
Reed Flute Cave is large enough to hold over a thousand people at one time. Its space was used as an air raid shelter during the Second World War.

Creation
The Reed Flute Cave was created by an ancient underground river, which slowly eroded the interior of the limestone mountain.

Human distractions
Reed Flute can be crowded, with the voice of guides discordantly blaring on handheld megaphones. I recommend entering Reed Flute Cave when it first opens in the morning, before the tour groups arrive. This way, you can enjoy Reed Flute Cave in its irresistible mode, silent and serene.

Clothing
Wear shoes with good traction because some steps inside a cave can be a bit wet and slippery. Bring a sweater if a damp, 20C (68F) cave environment would make you feel uncomfortably cold. You will be in the cave for about one hour.

Name
The name "Reed Flute" came about because reeds that are used for making flutes grew at the cave's entrance.

Seven Star Cave
For fewer fellow cave tourists, visit the worthy Seven Star Cave (also near Guilin). The visitor's route inside Reed Flute Cave is 240 meters (800 feet). The one inside Seven Star cave is longer.

Nearest major city
Guilin is in Guangxi province and lies roughly 1000 kilometers (600 miles) northwest of Hong Kong and Guangzhou (Canton), the capital of Guangdong province.