Yudai — the sandbar between two waters

A jade belt of sand

Yudai means “Jade Belt”. The sandbar is about eight and a half kilometres long and lies like a bolt across the mouth of the Wanquan River. It formed over a long time from two forces working against each other: the rivers push sand out to sea, the surf pushes sand back to the coast. Where the two balance, a bank grows.

In places the sandbar is a few hundred metres wide, at its narrowest only a few steps. At high tide you could almost spit from one water to the other — the sea in one direction and the river in the other.

Three rivers, one sea

Behind the sandbar three rivers meet. The largest is the Wanquan, at 162 kilometres Hainan's third-longest river, which rises in the mountains around Wuzhishan. Its name means “ten thousand springs”. A legend says a prince of the Yuan dynasty spent years in exile here; when he was recalled to become emperor, the people on the bank wished him luck — and he later named the river after that wish.

From the south two smaller rivers join. Together they form a lagoon shaped like a gourd, with about eight and a half square kilometres of water and several islands. On one of them, Dongyu, stands the forum. On another lies Lecheng, the medical special zone.

Two waters at a glance

Standing on the sandbar, you have two landscapes before you. On the sea side the waves of the South China Sea roll in, often with white spray, and the water shows three colours: slightly yellowish near the beach from the river sand, then light blue, and deep blue far out to the horizon.

On the other side the lagoon lies smooth as a lake, with fishing boats, herons and Bo'ao's hotel buildings behind. Experiencing this change within a few steps is the real experience — no photo quite captures it.

Which world record?

Almost every guidebook and ticket page says the sandbar is listed in the Guinness Book as the narrowest sandbar separating sea and river. That's only half true. The entry was awarded in June 1999 by a record agency in Shanghai whose Chinese name is confusingly similar to Guinness. It is not the same as the well-known Guinness World Records.

The northern part of the sandbar has since been deliberately left in its natural state as a “record stretch” for visitors. The place is special without any record. But it shows how superlatives come about in Chinese tourism marketing — and why it's worth checking them.

The goddess's stones

Off the sandbar dark rocks rise from the surf, stacked on top of each other like eggs. They're called the “Stones of the Holy Lord”. According to legend they are pebbles that fell from the hands of the goddess Nüwa as she mended the broken sky — and chose exactly this spot.

For the fishermen of Bo'ao the rocks are a landmark. In sunshine, when the waves break against them, they make the most striking picture of the day.

A shape that won't sit still

The sandbar looks as though it has lain like this for ever. In reality its shape is a state that changes constantly. Typhoons have remodelled it several times, washing sand away and depositing it elsewhere, and the river mouth has also shifted over time.

That makes the place fragile. Every big construction project on the river, every dam and every sand extraction changes how much sand ends up here. Standing here, you see one moment in a long interplay of forces.

How to get there

You can't walk there. You go by boat from the pier in the forum grounds; the crossing is included in the combined ticket and takes only a few minutes. There's little shade and hardly any infrastructure on the sandbar itself, so bring water and sun protection.

The current at the river mouth is strong. Swimming on the sea side is considered dangerous even when the waves look harmless. The visit is most beautiful in the morning, when the light is clear and the colours of river and sea differ most clearly.