Atlas of China
Danzhou 儋州Dānzhōu
Where the exiled poet Su Dongpo taught, in Hainan's north-west
About Danzhou
Danzhou's seat is Nada, but its history gathers at Zhonghe, to the north-west, where the Song-dynasty poet Su Dongpo lived in exile in the late 1090s. Dongpo Academy stands beside the Ancient City of Danzhou, whose old walls survive in stretches among the houses. On the Yangpu peninsula, villagers still gather salt on the more than a thousand volcanic-rock slabs of the Yangpu Ancient Salt Field, a method that goes back to at least the Song dynasty.
What to eat in Danzhou
- Danzhou milan rice noodles (儋州米烂)
- Zhonghe fragrant cake (中和香糕)
Listed sites in Danzhou
4 sites in Danzhou are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Dongpo Academy 东坡书院 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The site where the poet and official Su Dongpo (Su Shi), exiled to Hainan in the late 1090s, lived and taught in Danzhou; the academy that grew up around his Zaijiu Hall was rebuilt in the Ming and Qing dynasties, destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and restored in 1982. - Shihua Water Cave Geopark 石花水洞地质公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A karst geopark at Yaxing in western Danzhou, built around a limestone cave that visitors tour partly on foot and partly by small boat, with a stone forest above ground. - Ancient City of Danzhou 儋州故城 National heritage site · on the map
The old walled seat of Danzhou prefecture, founded in the early Tang dynasty and used through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing, which now forms the core of Zhonghe town. - Yangpu Ancient Salt Field 洋浦盐田 National heritage site
A salt field of more than a thousand flat-topped volcanic-rock slabs, each cut with a shallow trough and a thin rim, laid out on the shore at Yantian village on the Yangpu peninsula.
On the map
Open Danzhou on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
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