The Five Officials Temple (Wugong Ci, 五公祠) commemorates five Tang and Song dynasty officials who were exiled to Hainan, which imperial China regarded as a remote and uncivilised outpost at the edge of the known world. The five men — including the poet-statesman Su Dongpo (Su Shi) — all fell out of favour with the court and were sent as far south as the empire could send them.
The complex consists of several linked pavilions set around courtyards with large old trees providing welcome shade. The halls display calligraphy and inscriptions, and the atmosphere is quiet and scholarly — this is a place of literary pilgrimage as much as religious observance. The adjoining Qiongtai Academy can be visited in the same half-day.