Xiao, or the Chinese vertical flute, is also called dongxiao, which indicated that there are many holes in the pipe. It has been popular since thousands of years ago. It is proper to start with the history of paixiao while talking about that of xiao. Here, paixiao means several pipes are combined together. During the early period of the development of paixiao, people began to call it xiao. While performing, people found that it may give out high and low tones if there were holes of different distances between each other. In this regard, dongxiao gradually took the place of paixiao, thus, dongxiao has many holes and only one pipe.

The earliest xiao appeared in Han Dynasty, and it was then called qiangdi, which was popular among the Qiang people in Sichuan and Gansu provinces. At the 1st century BC, it became popular in the region of Yellow River. Later, it was developed into an instrument with six holes, which is extremely similar to today's xiao.

Its structure is quite simple, like the flute very much, but is longer than the flute. It is usually made of bamboo. The top is sealed by bamboo. There is a mouth on the top and five sound holes on the frontal side and one hole at the back. Beside, there are other holes which are designed to adjust the tunes, smooth the tones and raise the volume.

Xiao sounds soft and graceful. The performing skills are basically the same with that of the flute, but it is less flexible. For that reason, it is only suitable to play slow and peaceful lyrics, which conveys in this situation people��s feelings and draws a beautiful picture of the nature. It may perform solo, ensemble and concert, and also some folk music and accompaniment in local dramas.

The music below played by zizhu dongxiao, of which zizhu means a kind of bamboo, describes a picture in which flocks of wild geese are circling in the sky before descending onto the land.