Blogs from Hainan, China, Asia - page 18

In four short days, I received the worst sunburn of my life, witnessed a baby being flung about the ocean like a pool toy, observed the differences between island and mainland life, basked in the clean air of the least polluted city in China and learned a thing or two about myself. Just call it a typical vacation in China. May 1, International Labor Day, is a national holiday in China. Last year, we were given a week of vacation. In the past that was the norm- a week for National Day in October, a week for Labor Day in May, and a week for Spring Festival, or as we call it in the West, Chinese New Year. However, this year the government is experimenting with a different holiday allocation system. The May holiday and October ... read more

For the next three days, we had a pretty set routine. This involved: MORNING: There was no morning in Sanya. For us morning in Sanya was actually the night before still so doesn't actually count. The day pretty much doesn't start until about 1pm (on a good day). AFTERNOON: The afternoon would start with a quiet bowl of instant noodles in the room, followed by a trip to the beach for the adventurous. It was really, really hot, so this activity would only last a couple of hours max! Then it was time to have some food and a drink. Most/all of the time this would involve going to our favourite bar in the whole world, 'Rainbow bar'. If an award for the best bar can be given, it would win hands down. Not only did ... read more

Amazingly, we were all up and out by 10am! Amazing because we had had a few beers the night before. However, we needed to get a bus to Sanya and that was our motivation. The bus was very comfortable and for the few who weren't asleep the whole way, got to see some amazing scenery. We had a huge meal right where the bus had dropped us and we hopped into a taxi, hopeing to find a hotel from the bible. After driving round for ages, the driver could not spot the place and neither could we. So we jumped out and decided to locate on foot. Luckily, a nice man decided to help us and it turned out he was the manager of the hotel we were trying to find (Peter). Unfortunately his hotel was ... read more

The short trip to Hainan was fantastic. The first two nights we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel and the third night at the Hilton Hotel. Both hotels are simply great and we just relaxed, slept a lot and of course we didn't miss the big buffet. Unfortunately we got sunburned, although we took heaps of suncream and we didn't move away from the sunshade. Silvan enjoyed swimming at all, he knows now how to pronounce the word "bädelä".... read more

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com If Hawaii was Chinese... This is China's island of pristine beaches, tropical landscape, and runaway tourism. Located just off the south-eastern tip of China and adjacent to Guangdong province (where I lived), Hainan Dao is where most Chinese people aspire to take to the beaches. It also attracts a large number of Russian tourists since it is relatively close for them, as well as a small sprinkling of international tourists and backpackers. I stayed in the Sanya region, perhaps the Waikiki of the island, on Dadonghai Beach. This region is devoted entirely to tourism, but I found it interesting nonetheless because it has an extremely different feel compared to the mainland, and only a stone's throw away. The beach ... read more