Sanya The Red Detachment of Women Performing Arts Park

The "Red Detachment of Women" Park (三亚红色娘子军演艺公园) is not just an amusement park, but an entire complex dedicated to one of Hainan's most vivid symbols — the women's revolutionary detachment.

The heart of the park is a grand open-air show (starting at 20:00), which has been running since 2018 and has already drawn more than 3.5 million spectators. This is not an ordinary performance, but a "live movie" with a fully immersive effect: moving audience seats, special effects — 180-metre cables for flying actors, realistic explosions, holograms and lasers — and an incredible plot: the story of a village girl who endures tragedy and becomes the commander of a women's detachment. It is all based on real events of the 1930s in Hainan!

Besides the evening show, the grounds include several zones:

• Historical exhibitions — displays dedicated to the detachment and the liberation of Hainan.

• Entertainment zone — rides (including catapult roller coasters, unusual for China), a spherical cinema, carousels.

• Hongcun Village — a stylised old settlement with street performances, food and master classes (for example, weaving straw sandals).

The show is based on the real history of the Women's Special Detachment (女子军特务连) — the first regular women's military unit under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, created in Hainan in 1931. About 100 young peasant women joined the detachment, with an average age of under 20. Its official name was the Women's Special Detachment of the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Separate Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The detachment existed for only about 500 days, but during that time it took part in more than 50 battles. The detachment's story became the basis for the famous film "The Red Detachment of Women" (1961) and the ballet of the same name. It was these works that shaped the modern image of the "Red Women Soldiers," which today forms the basis of the show in the park.

Tip: If you are planning a visit, it is worth arriving in the afternoon to catch the daytime performances and the atmosphere of the village, and then stay for the evening show.