Guiping Tropic of Cancer Sign Park

Guiping Tropic of Cancer Sign Park

The Guiping Tropic of Cancer Sign Park is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

The Tropic of Cancer Sign Park is located beside the Nanwu Second-Class Highway in Xiaowen Village, Shizui Town, about 5 kilometers east of Guiping City, Guangxi. It gets its name because the park is built on the Tropic of Cancer, and it houses the first Tropic of Cancer monument in Guangxi. The main construction began on November 1, 1996, and was completed on June 21, 1997.

The Tropic of Cancer sign is located at 110°08'36" east longitude and 23°26'17" north latitude. This monument covers an area of 2,462 square meters, with a tower height of 17.2 meters and a span of 26 meters, symbolizing the Tropic line. A beautiful arc-shaped column resembling a rainbow passes through a sphere with a diameter of 6 meters that represents the Earth, and there is a 10-centimeter "sun-viewing hole" in the middle of the sphere.

Looking through the sun-viewing hole at the blazing sun allows you to truly appreciate the natural mystery of the Earth tilting as it rotates through the zodiac, with the sun’s direct rays oscillating between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Sunlight shines directly through this hole onto the point marking “Guiping” on the “Map of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region” located directly beneath. The east-west direction of the monument features a 5-centimeter-wide, over 20-meter-long Tropic of Cancer indicator line, which also marks the boundary between the tropics and the temperate zone. Standing here, you can have one foot in the tropics and the other in the temperate zone. When you speak at the central Guiping point of the monument, your voice sounds particularly loud, as if using a microphone. If you whisper 32 meters apart at the northern and southern points here, it sounds as clear as talking on the phone. Along the east-west chord line, as you move outward, the loud, resonant sound gradually weakens—an effect that is extremely interesting. This is the only Tropic of Cancer monument among the nine in the world that has such a strong echo effect.