Gaohu is known as "High Pitch Erhu". It is developed from Erhu to complement it with its higher and brighter tone. It is extremely popular in performing Guandong Music. Guandong Music originated before 1910, and is heavily used in Chinese Opera as a change-scene-music. Gaohu can also play Guandong Folk Songs vividly.

Its structure is similar to Erhu, except that because of its high pitch, its tone is more difficult to control and some of the Gaohu are played between the knees. The two strings are tuned to a perfect fifth (G, D) and the size of the wooden drum is relatively smaller than the Erhu. Bow hair is placed between the two strings. The absence of fingering board allows variety of music effects through variation of the strings’ tension. Popular music effect is the chirping of a bird.

In the modern Chinese Orchestra, Gaohuist is normally the leader of the String Section, and the one sitting nearest to the conductor is responsible for the performance of concert on stage.