Reed Flute Cave

This guide to Reed Flute Cave in Guilin opens with refugees hiding from Japanese soldiers in the 1940s, who by torchlight found ink poems left on the cave walls over a thousand years earlier by Tang-dynasty travelers. More than seventy of those inscriptions survive, the oldest dated to the year 792, lining the walls of a vast chamber locals call the Crystal Palace of the Dragon King. Take a moment near the entrance to look for the faded reeds that gave the cave its name.