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The Water Curtain Cave is not just a fictional cave. There is a cave which Wu Cheng'en, the author of "Journey to the West" uses to depict his Water Curtain Cave.

It is recorded that the cave is located at Mount Yuntai in the north-east of Jiangsu Province, not far away from the eastern coast of China.

Two photos in connection with this cave have been printed in the pictorial book "The Magnificent China", a 523 pages record of pictures published in 1972 showing the most well-known sceneries, cave engraving, stone carving, etc.

One of the photos shows a corner of Mount Yantai, with three Chinese characters engraved "The Mountain of Flowers and Fruit". The other shows the entrance to a cave, with three characters in bold Chinese "The Water Curtain Cave"

The same theory is also mentioned in a Chinese book "The World of Caves" published in 1981 by the Jiangsu Science Technology Press. However, no detail of the cave is recorded.