The invention relates to a retractable rod and a tent made from the rod. The retractable rod comprises a multitude of rigid skeleton joints having two axial end surfaces and side surfaces. The joints are connected through the convex-concave connection by two flexible ropes passing through the holes of the joints to form a rod. There is a storage compartment locating at one end of the rod which winds and stores the rod therein. The storage compartment comprises a shaft, a rod storage sleeve which is in an intermittent drive mode fixed to the shaft; one end of the two flexible ropes passes through the rod storage sleeve and is fixed to the shaft. The rod storage sleeve is supported and rotates between two rope-protecting boards. A tension part locates at the other end of the rod and the other end of the two flexible ropes is fixed to the tension part. The advantage of the invention is that the tent made from the retractable rod occupies a small storage space.