The Reed Flute Cave & Elephant Trunk Hill

I like caves.  I do.  I've been in a bunch in the US, and of course the cave in Spain with 40,800 year old cave art in it.  I found the Reed Flute Cave in Guilin to be underwhelming for three reasons.

First, they had it lit like Disneyworld.  Garish reds and blues and purples, etc.  Apparently those in charge felt they had to color up a cave that is both huge and over 180 million years old. 

Second, the cave formations were not very varied.  There was no cave bacon, no classic examples of cave shields.  The stalactites and stalagmites were interesting, but there were limited other formations.

Third, there was no care taken to protect the cave.  In the US (and the one in Spain), it is pounded into you not to touch anything natural, as the oils from our fingers kill the parts of the cave that are touched.  Stalactites and stalagmites can't grow if someone puts their hands on them.

Of the segments we have done on this trip, the cave was kind of blah.  I suppose if you haven't been in caves before, it would be pretty good.  The most interesting part to me is that he showed us cave graffiti that is around 300 years old.  Other graffiti dates back 1200 years to 792 AD, in the Tang Dynasty.  It's a little-known fact that Tang was invented in the 8th Century in China, not as some super sugary drink created by NASA for astronauts.

(Editor's Note: The reason it is "little known" is because it is NOT a fact.  Stop making stuff up.  Blogger: I like to think my discerning readers know when I'm making stuff up, going for the cheap laugh.  Editor: Oh, they are laughing all right.  At you, not with you.  Blogger: Sniffle, sniffle. Editor: Are you crying?  Blogger: There's a lot of stuff in the air in China.)

The city of Guilin (one more "l" and the city would have been named after Ozzie Guillen, which would have been a nice honor for him!) has one of the most beautiful landscapes.  The karst mountains thrust up randomly around the city.  In the misty rain, they did not make the best pictures, but were quite evocative. 

Every scene looked like a Chinese Painting.

Afterwards, we went to Elephant Trunk Hill, the symbol of the city of Guilin.  It's a bit weird that you have to pay an entrance fee to get into see the hill, but I don't make the rules.  We then walked through a nice park on an island known as Lover's Island, and it had a lot of modern art depicting couples kissing.

After lunch, we took it easy for a few hours, since we had been up at 4 am to fly from Chengdu to Guilin. I blogged while Carol napped.  Given the rain, it was nice to have some quiet time.