Seven Islands Archipelago

Seven Islands Archipelago

The Seven Islands Archipelago boasts a rare geological wonder found almost nowhere else in the world: sea-eroded tunnels. Nearly every island here has one or two caves, most of which are just a few meters deep. However, the caves on Shuangfan Island and Dengzhi Island penetrate right through the islands, forming “tunnels” navigable by small boats.

I once piloted a dinghy into the northern entrance of the west sail of Shuangfan Island. This cave, about 200 meters long and oriented from north to south, is dimly lit inside, with jagged rocks jutting out from the walls. Strangely enough, although the cave seemed quite dry, drops of water kept falling from the ceiling onto our necks, sending shivers down our spines. After traveling about a hundred meters in the dinghy and rounding a bend, we suddenly emerged into a vast open space: the cave widened to about a hundred meters, and the ceiling rose to roughly the same height, transforming the area into a spacious hall. Even more remarkably, there was a small hole in the ceiling of the hall that opened up to the sky. The opening was wide enough for a person to pass through, the walls were smooth, and slightly spiraled, with sunlight streaming straight down through the top hole into the tunnel. It’s almost unbelievable to think that such a majestic-looking island could have been hollowed out from the inside by some mysterious force.

In fact, the mysterious force behind the creation of these sea-eroded tunnels comes from the sea itself. From a geological perspective, the Seven Islands Archipelago lies along a fractured zone where the Earth's crust has cracked. Over tens of thousands of years of relentless wave action, the fractured rocks gradually loosened and eventually broke off from the main body of the islands. Meanwhile, some of the higher rocks collapsed into the sea due to gravity. Thus, amid the endless sounds of tides and waves over millennia, the sea-eroded tunnels slowly took shape.

Address:

Wenchang City, Hainan

Opening Hours:

All day

Admission:

Free