Daxiao Dongtian - Our local scenic area
After spending last summer unsuccessfully searching for a good local hiking spot, I finally discovered that Daxiao Dongtian had been practically in our backyard the whole time. This historic scenic area at the foot of Nanshan combines coastal hiking, mountain views, Taoist history, and more than 800 years of local history—all within walking distance of our apartment.
Last summer when we were here in Hainan, I spent a good amount of time trying to find a way to go hiking in our local area. I did do some fun hiking in Qixianling (Seven Fairy Mountain), but that was a couple hours away, so I only did it once. There was one day I actually walked about 15-20 miles trying to find a way to hike up to the top of our local mountain, Nanshan (South Mountain), but the path I took was blocked by a military base so I had to give up and head home.
This year I discovered I was actually pretty dang close to finding the real hiking area! There was a right turn I needed to take, then I would have ended up at Daxiao Dongtian, a local scenic area with some hiking trails!
My first excursion there this year I rode our scooter to the parking lot and walked from there. I had brought my passport, having read online that foreigners have to register when they come. I had planned to do a 15 mile hike, there's supposed to be a trail that connects to another site and then back, but it turned out that is currently under construction so I couldn't go that far. I ended up doing about 5 miles within the park, along the beach, up to the golden summit, and then further up along the beach and back.
We came to this park again as a family (Ziqin, the kids, and Ziqin's parents) a few days later and explored the area. Upon that visit the lady helping foreigners register recognized me and told me if I live locally that there is an app I can use in WeChat so that I don't have to bring my passport and register every time I visit. I used that app the next time I visited!
Since I couldn't cover that much distance in the park, my second visit I just skipped the scooter and walked from our apartment on over to the park and then still hiked up to the Golden Summit and then walked home! That gave me a bit over 11 miles of walking. In typical Chinese fashion all the trails were paved, and the climb to the summit was stairs, but it is still nice! It's a beautiful area, and it turns out it's quite historic as well. Its history dates back over 800 years!
In Chinese, the name is 大小洞天. In traditional Taoism a 洞天 (dongtian, roughly 'grotto-heaven') is a sacred mountain or grotto realm associated with immortals. The term applies to secluded mountains, caves, and valleys. There are many Taoist statues in the park.
People have been coming here since about 1187, during the Southern Song dynasty. At that time, a local official named Zhou Kang had explored the area and left some of the earliest inscriptions associated with the site. Another famous inscription is at a site in the park named 小洞天 (Small Grotto-Heaven) which dates back to 1247 but can still be seen today.
The park sits at the foot of Nanshan (south mountain), which is a mountain near us that I've wanted to get to the top of for years, but have yet to find a trail. Today it is a developed scenic area, with plenty of tourists both domestic and foreign. Most foreign tourists seem to be Russian, like most of Sanya. Still, though, there is some very pretty scenery at this site!
