Hairui Mu (Hairui’s Tomb) is located on Qiuhai Avenue, south of the intersection with Haixiu West Road.
It is within walking distance of the Haikou West Bus Station.
It is a recent reconstruction as the original was mostly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Only the stone tablet is original. The entrance fee is 10 yuan.
The original tomb was built in 1589 and made from stone.
Hai Rui (23 January 1514 � 13 November 1587), was a famous Chinese official during the Ming Dynasty. His name has come down in history as a model of honesty and integrity in office and he reemerged as an important historical character during the Cultural Revolution.
Hai Rui, whose great-grandfather married an Arab and subsequently adopted Islam, was born in Qiongshan, Hainan, where he was raised by his mother (also from a Muslim, or Hui, family). Unsuccessful in the official examinations, his official career only started in 1553, when he was aged 39, with a humble position as clerk of education in Fujian province. He built his reputation on uncompromising adherence to an upright morality, scrupulous honesty, poverty, and fairness. This won him widespread popular support but made him many enemies in the bureaucracy. Eventually he submitted a memorial impeaching the Jiajing Emperor himself in 1565 and was sentenced to death in 1566. He was released after the Emperor died in early 1567. Hai Rui was reappointed under the Longqing Emperor but soon forced to resign in 1570 after complaints were made over his overzealous handling of land-tenure issues. He then spent 15 years in retirement in Hainan before being finally brought back in 1585 under the Wanli Emperor. Hai Rui died in office two years later.