Weizhou Island

Weizhou is the youngest volcanic island in China, built by eruptions in the Quaternary and still showing its structure plainly: the southern side is a wall of layered lava and ash cliffs at Rock Screen Ridge, with sea caves and black boulder shores, while the north is gentler with sandy bays. Coral grows in the shallows, protected as a reserve, and the island is one of the better snorkelling spots on this coast. Catholic missionaries built a stone Gothic church at Shengtang in the 1860s using coral blocks and volcanic stone, and it still serves the island's Catholic villages.

What you actually see

• Rock Screen Ridge - layered volcanic cliffs and sea caves on the south coast.
• The coral shallows - protected reef, snorkelled from the beaches.
• Shengtang church - a coral-stone Gothic church from the 1860s.
• The banana and fishing villages - island settlements and small harbours.

When to go

October to June for calm seas; ferries are cancelled in rough weather and during typhoons from July to September. Summer is hot and crowded. Book ferries in advance in season.

Honest expectations

Ferry cancellations strand visitors for days in bad weather. Entry ticket plus ferry plus island transport adds up. Coral condition is mixed and beaches vary in cleanliness.

Nearby

Beihai and Silver Beach lie on the mainland northeast.