Wenchang
Descended from the Han-era Zibei County, this coconut-fringed seaboard town gave Hainan both Wenchang chicken and an old Confucian academy.
A place shaped through time
Wenchang fills the northeastern corner of Hainan, bordered by sea on three sides along some two hundred kilometres of coast. Its history begins with Zibei County, founded in 110 BC as one of the island's three oldest settlements, and the name Wenchang has been used since 627. The Wenchang Confucian academy and the Doubing Pagoda record a strong scholarly tradition, while the Dongjiao coconut groves and Tonggu Ridge frame a classic tropical shore. Wenchang chicken, first raised around Tanniu, is the ancestor of Hainanese chicken rice, and Baoluo noodles and Puqian sour broth are local specialities. So many typhoons make landfall here that it is called a typhoon corridor, which explains its low, sturdy stone houses.