Yiling Cave locates in Yiling Village, Wumin County, 18 kilometers away from suburb of Nanning City. It is a typical karst cave. It is also known as "Gan Palace" from the Zhuang ethnic language, which means a beautiful cave like a palace. According to geologists, the cave was formed one million years ago. The scenic spot was opened since 1975, attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Many activities in Guangxi such as the Guangxi International Folk Song Festival and the China TV Golden Eagle Awards are held here anuually.
According to legend, during 1205-1224 of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhou Shiqing, the Taoist priest once practiced in the cave. He made pills of immortality here and passed away sitting in the cave. Later the local people also called it as Wangxian Cave, and built Xianshan Temple on the top of the mountain. When the great poet Guo Moruo visited here in 1963, he wrote a poem to praise Yiling Cave, as beautiful and amazing as attractions in Guilin.
Features of Yiling Cave
Located in the hillside of Liangman Mountain, Yiling Cave is a typical karst cave which formed from a subterranean river due to the rising of the earth’s crust. After thousands of years of the water’s dissolution, Yiling Cave was covered with stalactites densely in thousands of shapes. The whole cave is like a conch in shape, which is 45 meters deep covering 24,000 square meters. It can be divided into three layers with twists and turns, and rocks with countless changes. Entering into the cave, you will see various and splendid stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, stone curtains, stone flowers, and stone mantles, forming the fascinating scenes.
Yiling Cave is divided into 8 scenic zones, with more than 100 scenic spots. Equipped with modern acousto-optic devices, various vivid shapes come in sight, including the "golden phoenix" spreading its wings, the "glistening waters" and "decorated sails" of the "island", a "bumper harvest" with "golden grains", "vegetables", "melons and fruits", "sea lions", "sea turtles", and "prawns".
Yiling Village is a typical Zhuang Ethnic village with pristine folk custom, dwellings of primitive simplicity and kinds of ethnic activities, such as welcoming ceremony by Suona horn, bamboo dances, shoulder pole dances, folk songs singing in antiphonal style. Visitors could explore the ethnic handicrafts workshop, unique winery and delicate snacks of the Zhuang Ethnic Group.
As a superexcellent tourism resort, Yiling Cave Scenic Area provides complete services in sightseeing, accommodation, catering, entertainment and shopping. There is the folk custom gallery, Bamboo Buildings, a monkey garden, ethnic performance stage and souvenir shops.