Daxiaodongtian — rocks, caves and ancient trees

The little cave of heaven

Daxiaodongtian lies about 40 kilometres west of the centre, on the south-west side of Nanshan — the same mountain on whose other side the great Guanyin stands. One mountain, two top-category scenic areas: Buddhist on one side, Taoist on the other.

The name means “great and small caves of heaven”. In Taoist teaching “caves of heaven” are special places where hermits lived and sought immortality. In the Southern Song era the prefect of Yazhou, Mao Kui, discovered a rock niche by the sea here and had the characters “Little Cave of Heaven” carved into the stone. The place has been famous ever since — for a good eight hundred years.

A shore of rocks

What's special is the coast. For seven kilometres, round granite boulders, stacked rocks and niches shaped by wind and waves line up. The Chinese have named many of them: the Dragon King of the Southern Sea, the divine turtle, the footprint of the immortal, the Sword-Testing Peak — a rock that looks as if someone had split it with a single blow.

Many stones bear old inscriptions, poems and sayings from several centuries. The best-known motif is the rock with the characters “Little Cave of Heaven” itself, today one of the most photographed sights of Sanya. Right behind it is a small sandy cove, Little Moon Bay.

The trees that don't grow old

On the slope above the coast grow some thirty thousand dragon trees, called in Chinese “the ageless pines of Nanshan”, although they aren't pines at all. Dragon trees grow extremely slowly and can live to a great age; according to the park, more than a hundred specimens are over five hundred years old. It's considered the largest stand of ancient dragon trees in China.

The trees fit what Nanshan stands for in China. On older people's birthdays you wish them a life as long as the South Mountain and as enduring as its pines. That's why a large stone with the character for long life stands at the path up to the trees.

The monk who wanted to go to Japan

In 748 the monk Jianzhen was caught in a typhoon on his fifth attempt to sail to Japan. His ship drifted south for fourteen days and was washed up on this coast. Jianzhen stayed on the island for more than a year, had a temple built in Yazhou and taught before returning north.

Only on his sixth attempt did he reach Japan, almost blind, where he became one of Buddhism's most important teachers. A large group of figures on the shore commemorates his landing — one of the stories showing how closely Hainan was already woven into the network of sea routes back then.

How to approach the day

The park is long and narrow. If you don't want to walk the whole way in the heat, take the electric bus to the “Little Cave of Heaven” stop and continue from there: to the rocks, the sandy cove, the dragon trees and, if you like, up to the summit with a view over coast and sea. Allow three to four hours for a visit.

By bus route 125, Daxiaodongtian is the end of a long ride all the way west along Sanya Bay — the nicest way to give the bus day a real destination. Return in the late afternoon by Didi or by bus again.