Fenghou Rock

Fenghou Rock

Fenghou Rock, originally called Monkey Cave, is located at the northeastern foot of Chajiu Mountain in Huatang Village, Chuanshan Township, Guzhang County, Guigang City, about 4 kilometers from Guzhang Market.

The cave entrance is about 7 meters wide and 5 meters high. On the left side of the cave entrance, three characters “Fenghou Rock” are carved into the stone wall. These were inscribed in the second lunar month of the Renzi year (1612) during the Ming Dynasty's Wanli reign by Zou Xun, the military defender of Wushan. The left wall of the cave entrance also bears an inscription written by Zou himself. The author of the inscription, playing on the similarity between the words for monkey (马骝, mǎliú) and “marquis” (侯, hóu), as well as their shared pronunciation with “monkey” (猴, hóu), creatively dubbed the site “Fenghou Rock,” meaning “Marquis-Sealing Rock.” Inside the cave, there are several other stone carvings, but due to the passage of time, they have become illegible.

Inside the cave, it is cool in summer and warm in winter. The middle level features a forest of stalactites, including stone pillars, stalagmites, stone curtains, and stone dragons—offering a dazzling array of shapes. Some resemble birds and beasts, while others strikingly take the form of human-like arhats, displaying a thousand postures and vivid lifelikeness. On the upper level of the cave, there is a crystal-clear stream that runs horizontally through the cavern, flowing year-round without drying up. It meanders gently toward an underground river. In spring and summer, the water surface can widen to 5 meters and reach a depth of over 1 meter, while in autumn and winter, it is about 2 meters wide and around a foot deep, making it a natural swimming pool. The upper part of the cave has winding paths that twist and turn all the way to the mountaintop and to the other side of the hill. A local folk rhyme says: “Fenghou Rock, Fenghou Rock, it reaches the sky above and the sea below.”