Stone gate
With its famous inscription.
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The tomb of Hai Rui (1514–1587), the Ming-dynasty official born in this city who became China's byword for honesty in office; in 1565 he submitted a memorial bluntly criticising the Jiajing Emperor, was sentenced to death and then freed after the emperor died, and people still call him «Hai Qingtian», Hai the upright official. When he died in Nanjing in 1587 his savings did not cover his funeral, and crowds in mourning dress lined both banks of the Yangtze as his coffin set off for his home town; tradition says the ropes carrying it snapped at this spot, so he was buried here, and the tomb was completed in 1589. The site opens with a stone gate inscribed «The upright spirit of eastern Guangdong», followed by a stone path lined with carved animals including sheep, horses, lions and turtles, ending at a bell-shaped granite mound 3 metres high. The tomb was damaged in the 1960s, then restored and opened to visitors in 1982; it became a protected national monument in 1996, and its gardens were enlarged in 2012. Some historians trace his family to a Muslim forebear named «Haidar», and his mother is said to have come from a Hui Muslim family, though he himself wrote as a Confucian scholar. Entry is free, and it opens from 8:00 to 18:00, per visitor guides.
With its famous inscription.
Carved in stone.
Shaped like a bell.
39 Qiuhai Avenue, Longhua District, west Haikou
A Ming-dynasty official born in Haikou who became China's symbol of honesty and openly criticised the Jiajing Emperor in 1565; entry to his tomb is free, per visitor guides.