China: The Daoist immortal Lan Caihe on the back of a turtle, from the album of 18 Daoist Paintings by Zhang Lu (1464-1538), 16th century CE. Painting sprinkled with gold leaf, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai

Lan Caihe is a Chinese mythological character and one of the Eight Immortals. He is perhaps the least defined of the Eight Immortals, with his age and even his sex never clearly defined. Therefore, he is often depicted as a boy or girl dressed in sexually ambigious clothing and carrying a bamboo flower basket and a pair of bamboo castanets.

Lan Caihe was said to have been stuck in a drunken stupor when he was swept up from the human world by a celestial swan or crane, which took him to heaven. Some stories say that he was aided in his journey to become an immortal by Sun Wukong, who transferred 500 years of magical powers to him.

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