Crystal Palace
Rock formations.
xiquinhosilva — CC BY 2.0 · Romain Pontida — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Flickr user: Bernt Rostad https://www.flickr.com/photos/brostad/ — CC BY 2.0 · G41rn8 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · xiquinhosilva — CC BY 2.0 · luchangjiang~鲁昌江 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · luchangjiang~鲁昌江 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · luchangjiang~鲁昌江 — CC BY-SA 3.0
Guilin's best-known cave, nicknamed the «Palace of Natural Arts», named after a reed growing at its entrance that was once made into flutes; it runs through a limestone hill in the northwest of the city. It is filled with stalactites, stalagmites, columns and rock curtains shaped by water over thousands of years, their formations named from folk tales, such as the «Crystal Palace» and «Fish Tail Peak», and lit today by coloured lights that add to the spell. Its walls carry more than seventy ink inscriptions of old poems and travel notes, the oldest dating from 792 under the Tang and still legible; the cave was then forgotten for centuries until refugees fleeing Japanese troops rediscovered it in the 1940s. Tickets are about CNY 90, and the tour inside takes about an hour along a paved path, per visitor guides. It's humid and mild inside all year and the floor can be slippery, so wear comfortable shoes.
Rock formations.
From the Tang era.
Inside the cave.
Ludi Road, northwest Guilin
About CNY 90, and the walk through the cave takes about an hour on a paved path, per visitor guides.