Maogong Mountain stands on the Baoguo state farm in Ledong Li Autonomous County, east of the farm headquarters, about 28 to 30 kilometres from the county seat at Baoyou and roughly 42 kilometres from the Tianya Haijiao shore near Sanya. It was long known as Baoguo Mountain, and it is the one hill in the county whose fame comes from a shape rather than a height: a granite ridge whose skyline is read, from the right angle and the right hour, as a reclining human figure. The reading is a local one, and this article treats it as exactly that – a piece of landscape folklore that a county chose to build on.
The discovery story is well documented in local accounts. In 1991, shortly after the October national holiday, staff of the Hainan state-farms bureau noticed, from a balcony of the Baoguo farm office and in the slanted afternoon light, that the bare rock on the hillside resembled a lying figure; some accounts date the first sighting to 1989. In July 1992 the farm wrote to the provincial government, and on 7 August 1992 a panel of 42 officials, specialists and scholars convened by the provincial environmental resources and tourism departments met at the farm and agreed on the resemblance. In November 1992 the national environmental protection agency issued document 016 recognising the landscape and asking for it to be protected and progressively upgraded; in 1994 the national remote-sensing centre brought early maps of the district to check the surrounding village names, and they matched the readings then circulating.
The mountain itself is modest in the numbers. The central granite outcrop rises about 630 metres, a relative height of some 320 metres above the farmland, and the ridge body runs about 4,000 metres long; the head is given as 185 metres long and 56 metres wide, while another account measures nearly 1,000 metres from the head to the chest. The rock is granite, not the basalt that one source claims. Around the hill sit villages whose names – Dongfanghong, Jiefang, Chonggong, Kangmei and Baota – are said to date from the 1950s, and a neighbouring peak called Baota Mountain is logged at 834.1 metres, a figure that local lore links, by coincidence, to a well-known unit number. These are stories the county repeats; the mountain does not confirm them.
What was built around the resemblance is a small pilgrimage complex. At the best viewing spot the old farm laid out a veneration platform modelled on the Beijing square’s proportions, with a monument, a hall whose exterior echoes the memorial hall in the capital, a minority-culture museum and a wall of painted panels, all looking across the rubber, mango and betel-nut plantations below. On paper the hill sits inside the Baoguo Mountain county-level reserve, listed at 181.40 hectares in the county’s 2023 protected-area filing and consolidated there into a Baoguo Mountain forest park of 437.89 hectares; the farm advertises the site as a 2A attraction, but the provincial list of A-grade sights does not carry it, so treat that grade as self-declared rather than official.
The one fact that matters most right now is that Maogong Mountain is shut. The site has been closed for renovation since late 2024, and reopening has been unannounced; the county’s own tourism channels carried no confirmed date as of October 2026, and visitors through 2024 and 2025 found the gates closed. The mountain can still be talked about, and the shape reads best in the middle of the afternoon, between about three and five o’clock, when the light rakes across the rock and sharpens the silhouette. Until the park says otherwise, this is a stop to plan around rather than a stop to drive to. Its old ticket line, 0898-85668803, is worth trying before any attempt.
Practicalities
Tickets. Admission was 20 yuan per adult before the closure, with children free and reduced rates for visitors aged 60 to 70; the site is not selling tickets while it is shut for renovation. Checked October 2026, subject to change.
Opening hours. The site is closed for renovation, so there are no current opening hours; before the closure it kept daily hours of about 08:30 to 18:00 by one listing and 09:00 to 21:00 by another. Treat any hour you see online as historic until the park reopens.
Closing day. Closed – Maogong Mountain has been shut for renovation since late 2024 with no confirmed reopening, so the practical closing day is every day until further notice. Confirm before travelling.
Getting there. Self-drive is the only way in: navigate to the Maogong Mountain scenic area on the Baoguo state farm, about 28 to 30 kilometres from Baoyou and roughly an hour and a half from Sanya. There is no scheduled bus to the site, and because it is closed, no transfer currently runs from the West Ring line’s Ledong or Jianfeng stations.
flowcloud would say that Maogong Mountain is a reminder that a landscape becomes a landmark the moment a community decides to read it that way – and that the ridge will still be lying there, patient and unbothered, whenever the gates open again.
Getting there: Maogong Mountain (formerly Baoguo Mountain) stands on the Baoguo state farm in Ledong Li Autonomous County, Hainan, about 28 to 30 kilometres from the county seat at Baoyou and roughly 42 kilometres from the Sanya shore; it is closed for renovation with no confirmed reopening, admission was 20 yuan per adult before the closure, and self-drive is the only practical access (checked October 2026, subject to change).