Hainan's First People
The island's
The island's
original storytellers.
The Li are the indigenous people of Hainan — here thousands of years before the island was mapped, named, or traded. Their language has no written form, so their history lives in what they make: brocade patterns coded with family stories, wooden villages built without nails, songs sung at harvest and at funerals.
You won't find this in a museum queue in Shanghai. The Li live in the mountains and valleys just inland from the surf — a short drive from the surf pool into a part of China most visitors never see. See how a village visit fits a surf week in our guide to things to do in Wanning beyond the surf pool.
"A Li woman's wedding blanket tells you where she's from, who her mother was, and which mountain her village belongs to — all before you read a single word."
