In the summer of 1988, poet Hai Zi passed through Delingha and wrote a line that names the city. That brief encounter gave readers across China a literary point of entry to a remote place in the Qaidam Basin. The city’s name entered the poem as a location and, over time, became part of Delingha’s modern cultural memory.
From the journal
How a Poem Put Delingha on the Literary Map
A poem written while passing through Delingha became a lasting part of the city’s public memory, now gathered at a riverside exhibition hall.
A line attached to a city
The poem’s home by the river
The Hai Zi Poetry Exhibition Hall stands beside the Bayin River. A 2024 report describes seven sections, including a manuscript hall and a poetry-literature hall. The exhibition format gives visitors several ways to meet the poet: through biographical context, surviving manuscript material, moving images and books. Outside, the river continues through the city while the hall gathers a particular moment of literary history. Delingha’s connection to Hai Zi is therefore held in both a written line and a place where readers can encounter the work and its context.