Reed Flute Cave, the Nature's Art Palace

photo courtesy Roy Chung

One of the China's most amazing wonders of nature is the Reed Flute Cave. Scientists give the cave's age as 180 million years old. During all these years Mother Nature has been creating something incredible inside this cave: a spectacular world of various stalactites and stalagmites, weirdly-shaped stone pillars and wonderful rock formations. According to the legend, a local peasant who were looking for a good quality reed to make a flute, accidentally discovered the entrance to the cave. And since then, for over 1200 years, the site has been one of Guilin's most interesting attractions. And that's how the cave got its poetic name. Perhaps the first inscription out of more than 70 found in the cave and dating back as far as 792 AD was made exactly by that lucky peasant.

Qufu, the place of birth and death of Confucius

photo source 

Famous Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius was born, grew up and died near present day Qufu city. Just two years after his death his house was declared a temple. Over the centuries it was destroyed and rebuilt several times, each time on the grander scale. Today's temple dates from the early 16th century, when it was rebuilt following the 1499 fire sparked by lightning. Since it was built almost at the same time as the Forbidden City in Beijing, there are many design similarities between the two complexes.