Luhuitou

The legend

There are several versions of the story; the most detailed goes like this: a cruel chieftain wants a precious set of antlers and forces the young Li hunter A Hei into the mountains. There A Hei sees a beautiful deer being chased by a leopard. He shoots the leopard — and then pursues the deer himself.

For nine days and nine nights he chases it, over ninety-nine mountains and through ninety-nine rivers, from the mountains of the interior to a coral cliff at the southern tip of the island. In front of the animal there is only the sea. A Hei draws his bow. Then the deer turns and looks at him — and turns into a young Li woman.

The two marry. The deer woman calls her brothers for help, together they defeat the chieftain, and a village grows on the cliff. Since then the hill has been called Lùhuítóu — “the deer turns its head”. And to this day Sanya carries the nickname Lùchéng, the Deer City.

A love story as a city emblem

In China the legend counts among the three great love stories of the minorities, alongside Ashima from Yunnan and Liu Sanjie from Guangxi. What's remarkable is where it comes from: it isn't a Han Chinese story but one of the Li, the island's original inhabitants. A city of a million people has made its minority's legend its landmark.

On the summit stands a large granite sculpture: hunter, deer and woman in one group. It was created by the Hainanese sculptor Lin Yuhao; by his account the project was initiated by a local politician from the Li people. Sources disagree on its height — figures range from 12 to 15 metres. What is certain: it is one of the island's best-known sculptures and won a national award for urban sculpture in 2009.

The deer really exists

The animal in the legend is no mythical creature. It is the Hainan Eld's deer, pōlù in Chinese — a subspecies found only on this island. It was almost wiped out in the 20th century; in the 1970s only a few dozen animals were left. Only protected areas in the dry west of the island allowed the population to grow again.

The park itself does have a deer enclosure — but it houses sika deer, not the rare Eld's deer of the legend.

The hill of love

The park has fully embraced the legend and calls itself the “Hill of Love on the South China Sea”. There's a character for love carved into the rock, a platform for eternal vows, love locks, a “marriage tree” and a “stone that only crumbles when the seas run dry” — after a Chinese saying about eternal faithfulness.

At the northern viewpoint there is a stone inscription with the characters for “love at first sight”, written by the former Chinese defence minister Zhang Aiping. Around the sculpture there are further inscriptions by writers and politicians; Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have been up here too. Anyone in China making an inspection tour of Sanya traditionally climbed this hill.

The view

The park lies on the Luhuitou peninsula, which juts into the sea about three kilometres south of the city centre. It covers five peaks on a good 80 hectares, the highest 181 metres high. Three sides border the sea, one the city — which is why it is the only place from which you can see Sanya as a whole.

From the top it's all in one picture: the city centre, Sanya Bay and Dadonghai, the towers of Phoenix Island, the fishing boats in the harbour — and the river mouth where Sanya's two river branches meet, the fork from which the city takes its name. The park is a viewpoint for both sunrise and sunset.

From paid park to city park

For a long time Luhuitou charged admission. Since 1 July 2022 the park has been free — and it has changed since then. In the evening the locals come: you see people live-streaming, singing, doing karaoke, strolling. It's open until 22:30, and after sunset the whole illuminated city lies beneath you.

A wild macaque population also lives on the peninsula. The animals are used to people and turn up at the roadside and in the park.