Wuzhishan

The roof of Hainan

Wuzhishan means “Five Finger Mountain”, after the five peaks that from a distance look like a raised hand. The highest is 1,867 metres — more than 300 metres higher than Tai Shan, China's most famous sacred mountain. The Chinese call it the “roof of Hainan”.

There's a common saying on the island: if you haven't been to Wuzhishan, you haven't really been to Hainan. It's not just local pride. If you only know the coast, you really only know half the island.

The mountain that makes the weather

The mountain range in the centre is the reason Hainan has two completely different halves. The humid north-east monsoon hits the mountains and rains itself out on their eastern side. The west stays dry in the rain shadow — which is why the big salt fields of Yinggehai lie there, and why the west coast is so much barer than the east coast.

The island's big rivers also rise up here. The Wanquan River, which reaches the sea at the Jade Belt sandbar near Bo'ao, has its source in the Wuzhishan range, as does the Changhua River, which flows west.

The national park

The mountain is part of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. China established it in 2021 as one of its first five national parks. It covers the country's largest continuous tropical rainforest, spread over several mountain ranges: besides Wuzhishan also Bawangling, Jianfengling, Diaoluoshan, Limushan and Yinggeling.

The park is home to one of the rarest mammals in the world, the Hainan gibbon. Around 1980 only seven to nine animals remained; strict protection has brought the population back to a few dozen. It is considered the rarest primate on earth — but it lives in Bawangling in the west, not at Wuzhishan.

The path through the rainforest

For visitors, the rainforest area on the Shuiman River is the way into the mountain. It lies by Shuiman village, directly below the peaks, and offers the best view of the five fingers. China's former premier Zhu Rongji also looked at the mountain from here.

A boardwalk about three kilometres long leads through the forest. You see tree ferns, considered living fossils — their relatives grew in the time of the dinosaurs —, bird's-nest ferns sitting in the treetops like hanging flower baskets, giant banyan trees and a lychee tree said to be over a thousand years old. If you like, you can also ride a white-water stretch of about four kilometres down the valley.

The summit stays untouched

Hikers used to climb all the way to the top — a strenuous day, four to five hours uphill, partly on all fours, and several hours back. Today the summit area lies in the strictly protected core zone of the national park. Ordinary visitors stay at the viewpoint and on the boardwalk, and that's a good thing: this is exactly where the forest is meant to be left to itself.

The land of the Li

Wuzhishan is not only a mountain but also a town. It used to be called Tongshi and until 1988 was the capital of the Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture; in 2001 it took the mountain's name. The range is still the heartland of the Li, the island's original inhabitants.

If you've been to Binglanggu, here you see the landscape the culture shown there comes from: villages in the valleys, rice terraces on the slopes and tea. The altitude and humidity create growing conditions rarely found in the tropics — Wuzhishan tea, especially the black tea, is known across the island. Very close to Shuiman lies the Li village of Maona with tea gardens, which can be visited for free.

An honest word about getting there

Wuzhishan is the most involved excursion around Sanya. By public transport it takes three stages: by bus from Sanya bus station to Wuzhishan town, then by regional bus to Shuiman, and from there the last kilometres to the rainforest area. That's a good three hours one way.

If you want to go there and back in one day, set off early and start back by early afternoon at the latest — the last buses to Sanya leave in the afternoon. By Didi it's about two hours direct. Since hardly any cars are about in the mountains, it's worth booking the return trip in good time or agreeing a pick-up time with the driver.