Guishan Island 桂山岛

About Guishan Island

Guishan Island (桂山岛) is one of the Wanshan Archipelago (万山群岛) islands in the Pearl River estuary, governed as Guishan town (桂山镇) of Xiangzhou District (香洲区), Zhuhai (珠海). It lies about 3 nautical miles from Fan Lau (分流) on Hong Kong's Lantau Island and about 15 nautical miles from Xiangzhou and Macau.

Guishan has been joined by land to Niutou Island (牛头岛) and Zhongxinzhou (中心洲), and the three form one island of about 10 km². The rock is granite, and quarries once worked on Zhongxinzhou and Niutou; both had closed by the early 2000s. The western shore faces shallow water and the eastern side deeper water. Big oil tankers anchor off the island, which sits on the main channel along the east side of the estuary; it is also described as one of Guangdong's largest bases for seawater cage aquaculture. Guishan town takes in 21 islands and 800 km² of sea, with two traditional fishing villages, Guishan (桂山村) and Guihai (桂海村).

The island was once called Lajiwei (垃圾尾岛). In the 1950 Battle of the Wanshan Archipelago (万山群岛海战), the People's Liberation Army warship Guishan (桂山号) made a beach landing here, and in 1954 the Zhuhai County government gave the island the ship's name. The landing site is now the Guishan Warship Memorial Park (桂山舰纪念公园), a site on Guangdong's sixth batch of provincial heritage listings. Its Tianhou (天后) temple to Mazu (妈祖) is said to be two or three hundred years old and is described as one of the largest and most intact surviving Mazu temples in the archipelago. Its festival, on the 23rd day of the fourth lunar month, brings lion dances, roast-pig offerings, a procession of the goddess and a hundred-table banquet; in 2015 the rites entered Zhuhai's intangible heritage list as part of its eighth batch.

Guishan is the only town in the archipelago with roads for vehicles, but only government vehicles use them, and residents get about by bicycle.

What to look for

• Guishan Warship Memorial Park (桂山舰纪念公园) at the 1950 landing point
• Tianhou Temple (天后庙), a Mazu temple said to be two to three centuries old
• The Tianhou festival on the 23rd day of the fourth lunar month
• The tunnel museum (坑道博物馆) and military education base
• Wen Tianxiang Cultural Square (文天祥文化广场), with a statue of the national hero Wen Tianxiang
• The seawater cage fish farms and the Beishan eco-park (北山生态园)
• The lighthouses on the island's No. 1 and No. 2 breakwaters

Location & getting there

Getting to Guishan Island

• Search for 桂山岛 with 珠海市 and 香洲区（万山群岛）.