Shepan Island 蛇蟠岛

About Shepan Island

Shepan Island (蛇蟠岛) lies in Sanmen Bay (三门湾) on the East China Sea coast of Sanmen County (三门县), Taizhou (台州), where Taizhou meets Ningbo (宁波), 17.5 km from the Sanmen county town.

Shepan was once a true island of 17.4 square kilometres. Land reclamation in 2008 tied it to Yishi Town (一市镇) in Ninghai County (宁海县), and it is now a peninsula. The Shepan Channel (蛇蟠水道) runs along its southern side, facing Liuao Town (六敖镇) in Sanmen, while two harbours, Qingshan (青山港) and Liyang (力洋港), divide it from Ninghai to the north.

The island is known for shepan stone (蛇蟠石), a brownish-red rock valued for carving and building. Quarrying began in the Song dynasty and went on for more than 800 years, leaving over 1,300 artificial caves of different shapes, which is why it is called Thousand-Cave Island (千洞岛). The caves are large and small, horizontal and vertical, flooded and dry, straight and bent, with side branches and caves opening off other caves. Xinhua notes that some of the rock has taken on a rare soy-sauce red and is said to have formed from fine volcanic particles. In 2017 an expert review held by the Ministry of Land and Resources put forward the Sanmen Shepan Island National Mine Park for national mine park status in its fourth batch.

In the 1930s the director Cai Chusheng (蔡楚生) filmed location scenes for Song of the Fishermen (渔光曲) on the island. Its scenic area, a national AAAA site, is made up of a Pirate Village (海盗村), the Wild Man Cave (野人洞) and a mud-sliding park; the cave takes its name from the idea that pirates or wild men may have lived in it long ago. The second season of CCTV's A Bite of China showed an island fishing family and local seafood such as braised small octopus (红烧望潮) and stewed mudskipper (清炖跳跳鱼).

What to look for

• The quarry caves of shepan stone, more than 1,300 cut since the Song dynasty
• Wild Man Cave (野人洞), a stone cave that stays warm in winter and cool in summer, named for the idea that pirates or wild men once lived there
• Pirate Village (海盗村), one of the three parts of the scenic area
• The mud-sliding park (滑泥乐园), the third part of the scenic area
• Brownish-red shepan stone, some of it tinged a soy-sauce red that Xinhua calls rare
• Locations used for the 1930s film Song of the Fishermen (渔光曲)

Location & getting there

Getting to Shepan Island

• Search for 蛇蟠岛 with 台州市 and 三门县.