One of the main attractions in and around Guilin are the karst stone formations. These mountains, that pop out of a mainly flat landscape, contain many caves and some of these can be explored.

Having visited a fair share of caves in my life, but mainly in Europe, the caves here surprised me a bit. All of the ones that can be visited are lighted in all colors of the rainbow! Furthermore, the Chinese visitors have to be entertained, so all kinds of structures that look like an animal, plant or person are given a name. They then put a (lighted) sign in front of the structure, and the tour guide will point out the shape and where the head, ears, eyes etc. are. Some shapes that are not very clear are even helped a bit, by putting an eye on it or so… The Chinese tour groups love it.

This whole namegiving of structures is not my thing, but I do like the lighting, it gives the cave a very different look, and it makes for beautiful pictures. We visited several caves over the past days, but the best one by far is the Crown Cave, about 40 kilometer outside Guilin (you also pass it by boat between Guilin and Yangshuo). If you have time, go there. It