海口仙人洞

Haikou Immortal Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Rongtang Village, Shishan Town, Xiuying District, Haikou City. (19.9436267, 110.1939842)
Open:	All year daily 8-18. [2026]
Fee:	free. [2026]
Classification:	Lava Tube Immortals
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Haikou Immortal Cave, Haikou Volcanic cluster SubScenic Spot, Rongtang Village, Shishan Town, Xiuying District, Haikou City, Tel: +86-898-65469666. E-mail: E-mail: Huguangyan Scenic Area, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong, Tel: 0759-2819197. E-mail:
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History

2015	designated a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Description

海口仙人洞 (Hǎikǒu xiānrén dòng, Haikou Immortal Cave/Haikou Fairy Cave) is not the name of this cave, actually it is simply named 仙人洞 (xiānrén dòng, Immortal Cave). Fairy is actually a frequent mistranslation, this name has absolutely nothing to do with fairies because they are from Celtic legends and unknown in China. Xianren are Topic Immortals and there are hundreds of caves in China with this name, each with a legend about an immortal who lived here or even became immortal at the cave. The legend of this cave is quite dull: A Taoist priest became an immortal in the cave. And almost funny is the description:

The lower part has caves within caves and there are heavens beyond heavens, which is confusing and surprising.

After so much confusion and surprise, we will try to give a more realistic and helpful explanation. This site is the main geotope of the 雷琼世界地质公园 (Léi qióng shìjiè dì zhì gōngyuán, Leiqiong Global Geopark) and is named 海口园区 (hǎikǒu yuánqū, Haikou Park) or sometimes Hainan Crater Park. It is basically a volcanic crater located right south of the city Haikou with a loop trail. On this trail, which is following the rim of the crater, numerous geological things can be seen, like Aa Lava, basalt columns, and even a lava tube. At least the term "Lava Tude" is the official statement. To us, it looks more like a boulder cave, but that’s hard to say as the number of pictures on the web is pretty small. One explanation was that the lava tube collapsed, and the remaining spaces are those between the boulders of the collapse. This explains the huge number of tiny crack caves which are also known as "Seventy-two Caves". However, for a UNESCO Global Geopark the available geological background info is quite low.

At one point there is a steep staircase descending to the bottom of the crater. And then there is an outlook to the north offering a view of the city. This is the highest point of the crater rim 222 m asl. The crater has a diameter of 90 m and the is 20 m deep. The walk is about 1.5 km in total, and you should plan about 1 hour for the visit. The park has no entrance fee, but there are open hours of sorts, as people should visit the site during daylight hours.

Another park of the Geopark is the 火山口公园 (Huǒshān kǒu gōngyuán, Crater Park) which is about 5 km to the southeast. Again there are numerous volcanism related geotopes. The area has a lot of craters, a 130 m wide caldeera, and a total of 38 volcanoes. Most of them originate from eruptions some 8,000 years ago.