Wanquan River

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Wanquan River (Chinese: 万泉河,literally "ten-thousand-spring river") is the third longest river in Hainan Island, and is 162 km long. It rises in the Five-Finger Mountain, and flows generally northeast turbulently in a narrow route through moutainous regions. About half way downstream, it enters Qionghai. Here the river bed widens and the water flows gently, and on the banks are mostly coconut trees and banana plantations. For its last 30 km, the river makes a southeast turn, and before it empties into the South China Sea at Bo'ao, where it joins the Longgun River and Jiuqu River in a common estuary.

In the ballet, Red Detachment of Women, the Red Army set their camp beside the Wanquan River.

Wanquan River is also the subject of a popular song, I Love the Five-Finger Mountain, I Love the Wanquan River, sung by Li Shuangjiang.


I Love the Five-Finger Mountains, I Love the Wanquan River

Lyrics by Liu Chang'an; Music by Zheng Nan (English translation by user Roland Longbow)


I love the Five-Finger Mountains,

I love the Wanquan River,

Holding the steel gun passed down to me

from the Red Army,

I defend the motherland on the Hainan Island.

Ah, the Five-Finger Mountains,

Ah, the Wanquan River,

You bespeak countless stories of the Red Army,

You sing odes to the Red Army day and night.


I love the kapok trees in the Five-Finger Mountains,

Under which the Red Army soldiers used to set up bonfires;

I love the red rocks in the Five-Finger Mountains,

On which the Red Army soldiers used to whet their bayonets;

I love the paths treaded by the Red Army soldiers,

Along which I go to my sentry post.


I love the clear water in the Wanquan River,

Which the Red Army soldiers used to boil wild fruits;

I love the successive waves in the Wanquan River,

And it was here that the Red Army

chased the enemies into the river.

The Wanquan River flows toward the sea,

I go on patrol along the river.


Ah, the Five-Finger Mountains,

Ah, the Wanquan River,

The red land we defend,

Holding forever the steel gun from the Red Army.