Dongpo Academy
Su Dongpo (1037-1101), a court official and great man of letters in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), was once demoted to a minor post at Danzhou (Hainan). When he arrived in Hainan in 1097, the local magistrate Zhang Zhonghe and Li Ziyun, a local scholar, pooled money to build a house for him and his son. During his three years on the local post, Su turned his home into a school teaching poetry and literature, spreading culture of the Central Plains, thus starting Confucian education in Hainan. Eventually, the site became the academy for the highest education in Danzhou. In 1327 during the Yuan Dynasty, the site was named the Dongpo Academy. Now, the compound has a number of ancient structures, including halls, pavilions, and corridors, and strewn with pools, centuries-old trees, steles, and stone carvings. It has a rich collection of ancient calligraphy works and paintings. A masterpiece among them is Su Dongpo's Bamboo Hat and Clogs.
