Tianya Haijiao or the "End of the Earth and the Corner of the Sea" is located at the foot of Xiama Hill in the town of Tianya, 24 km west of Sanya. This spot is hugely popular with Chinese tourists who flock here to be photographed in front of the huge rock which is featured on the back of the RMB2 note.

In fact, there are numerous rocks here of different size and shape, distributed along the silvery beach. The Chinese characters for "Tianya Haijiao" (end of the earth) and "Nantian Yizhu" (the huge rock that emerges from the sea, making a "corner" ), are engraved on three of the biggest rocks that sit along the coast. This area is known as the "End of the earth" because this was the place where Song dynasty officials were exiled to for criticizing their government. For them, this untraversed wilderness must have really felt like the "end of the earth".

Of course, there is a romantic legend accompanying the area. Two passionate lovers from rival Li clans are said to have pledged their love for one another here, promising that they would be together wherever they traveled. Constantly pursued by troops from both clans, they were forced to leap from this spot into the sea. The Chinese believe that two of the huge rocks that stand facing one another, represent the two lovers. Today, Chinese couples still invoke this tale in their declarations of love, promising that they too, would go to the "end of the earth" for one another.

This is a very busy spot, and in fact, there is not much to hold you here for more than an hour or so. There is a Pearl Farm nearby, which is fairly interesting and a good place to purchase Hainan's famous seawater pearls.