Play in Zhanjiang | The southernmost tip of mainland China - Dengloujiao, Xuwen County

The southernmost point of mainland China is located at Dengloujiao in Xuwen County, with geographical coordinates of 20°13'26.1" north latitude and 109°55'10.3" east longitude. It was known as "the southernmost point" and "the end of the south" in ancient times. Dengloujiao is named after the ocean and the lighthouse. Its terrain resembles a bull's horn extending into the sea and is surrounded by the Qiongzhou Strait and the Beibu Gulf. The corner of the lantern tower hides a rich history. According to the "History of Chinese Navigational Aids", France occupied this place in 1894 and built the Dengloujiao Lighthouse. The Dengloujiao Lighthouse was fired on January 1, 1895 (the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month in the twentieth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), with a range of 13.8 nautical miles. It is the earliest navigation lighthouse on the Leizhou Peninsula and an important navigation aid for China's route to Southeast Asia. In March 1950, Dengloujiao became the first crossing point for the Crossing to Hainan operation, which fired the first shot in the liberation of Hainan. In 1994, on the centenary of the establishment of Dengloujiao Lighthouse, the Provincial Maritime Safety Administration built a multifunctional modern lighthouse here to meet the needs of modern shipping development. The new lighthouse is in the shape of a hexagonal prism, 36.6 meters high, and is equipped with intelligent, high-brightness lamps, an all-weather radar transponder, and an environmentally friendly solar power supply system. This tower has now become the geographical landmark of the southernmost point of mainland China. The elegant name of the lantern tower is "Jiaowei Xiangguang "Jiao" means the junction of two waters. The pointed sandbar at Dengloujiao is the confluence of the South China Sea and the Beibu Gulf. Whenever the waves surge, "cross waves" are formed, which are also jokingly called "kissing waves" by netizens. Dengloujiao has white sand and blue water, and beautiful tropical scenery. The sea area in this area is a national nature reserve for coral reefs, which preserves the largest, most complete and best-preserved contiguous coral reef group on my country's continental shelf. Whenever the sun is shining, you can view these colorful corals in various shapes and forms by boating on the sea. At 19:00 on March 5, 1950, 799 brave warriors from a reinforced battalion of the 352nd Regiment, 118th Division of the 40th Army, led by Division Chief of Staff Gou Zaisong, 352nd Regiment Commander Luo Shaofu, Reinforced Battalion Commander Chen Chengkang and Political Instructor Zhang Zhongxian, started crossing the river from Dengloujiao and fired the first shot in the sea crossing operation to liberate Hainan. Before the expedition, the commander of the 40th Army, Han Xianchu, personally went to the beach to see them off and presented the red flag of "Crossing the Sea Hero Camp" to the brave warriors. At 14:00 on March 6, the reinforced battalion successfully smuggled across the border at Baimajing, Hainan Island. At 19:00 on March 26, 2,937 officers and soldiers of the 352nd Regiment of the 118th Division of the 40th Army, led by Ma Baishan, deputy commander of the Qiong Column, and Liu Zhenhua, director of the division's political department, set out from here again and successfully landed at Yubao Port in Chengmai County, Hainan at dawn the next day.