Blogs from Haikou, Hainan, China, Asia - page 5

Woke up to our first day of rain in Yanshuo, fortunately we were leaving today. After breakfast we finished packing up and began our travels to Hainan! Our bus to Guilin was stopping constantly trying to gather any stragglers to bump their wage for the day I guess! It ended up arriving in Guilin far later than we anticipated but we were lucky that another was running in an hour. After some corn on the cob and spicy sausage we were loading onto the bus. No room in luggage section so all bags were rammed in the aisle, clearly not designed for walking on. We had picked a sleeper bus just to sample but the bed was tiny, nowhere near enough room to lie out fully, although Laura was really snug. As we set off it ... read more

Well, we made it. Barely. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:40am, and we live a quick 5 minute bus ride away, so we woke up at 5:20am and aimed to catch a bus no later than 6:40, which we thought would be the first available bus. We to our bus stop at 6:30 and waited and waited and waited.....We were getting nervous, but didn't want to take a taxi yet. We should have. By 7:00 no bus and no taxis were around, so we ran to the main road where finally a taxi cut off three lanes of fast moving traffic and picked us up for a 20RMB ride t the airport. By bus it would have cost around 4RMB. The taxi driver must have figured out we were in a hurry, and blatantly ... read more

Have just finished two weeks of teaching conversational English at the Haikou Municipal Educational Research & Training Academy. This is our fourth year teaching with Global Volunteers & the most fun. Our team of 17 bonded quickly & the laughter & companionship developed quickly! Each morning we boarded the bus at 8AM & returned to the hotel by noon for lunch. Roy & I shared a class, consisting of 9 students, all Chinese English teachers. They were eager to increase their ability to speak conversational English. Teachers teach their English class 'from the book'. Once out of the university, they do not have much opportunity to speak conversational English. Day of our final class, the Academy gave a closing ceremony & each class sang songs........ours sang 'WELCOME TO ISLAND OF HAINAN' & dressed in native Hainan ... read more

AFTER 16 HR FLIGHT, NEWARK/HONG KONG ON CONTINENTAL, WE ARRIVED IN HONG KONG & SPENT ONE NIGHT. FOLLOWING DAY, FLEW 1 HR TO HAINAN ISLAND TO PREPARE FOR OUR 'FOURTH' SESSION WITH GLOBAL VOLUNTEERS IN HAIKOU CITY. THE WEATHER IS VERY WARM & HUMID........WE'RE USED TO THAT & RATHER ENJOY IT! HAD A NICE DINNER WITH OUR CHINESE FRIENDS UPON OUR ARRIVAL IN HAIKOU LAST NITE. WAS A WONDERFUL WELCOME FOR US......... ALL'S WELL!!!!! ... read more

In ancient China, the southern Island of Hainan was known as the "end of the world". It is the place, to which many brave dissenters and critics of China's Imperial Dynasties and its emperors were exiled. One of the most outspoken critics of the Song Dynasty was China's ancient, grand poet Su Dongpo, who was exiled to Hainan between 1097 A.D. and 1100 A.D. by the Song Dynasty emperor. He described his journey to the "tropical" Island of Hainan, located on the southern tip of China, with these words: "... Having visited the wonder, I never feel regretful, though gone through difficulties and hardships." (Let me lament on my difficulties and hardships during my visit to China's tropics, the Island of Hainan, in this TravelBlog. For a time, I too thought it was my "end of ... read more