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Published: December 25th 2008
Sanya, Hainan Dao
Hao Piao Liang (Chinese for 'beautiful')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 is pleasant, and at night the Chinese-style cheese takes over, with laser beams, neon, and strobe lights bursting out from the resorts over the South China Sea, and markets of food stalls and tacky tourist trinkets set up on the waterfront.
Cary, my Chinese travel companion, had never swam before, nor had she ever tried spaghetti, so we went for Italian at night.
I love Chinese beach gear
Imagine thousands of people dressed like this. That is Hainan. We also discovered a very interesting outdoor food court with ultra cheap regional meals, mostly seafood, from Hainan and Guangdong province.
Perhaps my favorite part of Hainan was observing the
hoards of Chinese tourists, decked out in matching ultra tacky Hawaiian style beach gear. I saw entire busloads of awkward Chinese business people pull up to shops, all go in and purchase the exact same matching flower print shorts and shirt, and then they spice it up with a little fanny pack, digital camera pouch, and sunglasses on a string around the neck. Then they travel in convoy to the different tourist theme parks in the area set up for visitors just like them, with guides holding flags and loudspeakers to lead their group, fake tribal girls dressed fitted costumes, and golf carts to get around the sites. It is quite entertaining to watch really.
We didn't spend the entire time on the beach. First we visited the
Nanshan Fojiao Wenhua Yuan (South Mountain Buddhist Culture Park), a huge outdoor Buddhist theme park, complete with temples, statues, peaceful parks, waterfalls, and vegetarian restaurants. The centerpiece of the park is the
enormous A-Ma statue which, at 108 meters, is
16 meters higher then the Statue of Liberty, making it the
tallest statue in the world! A-Ma is a female Buddha that is very popular with fishermen throughout this part of East Asia.
Another day we got a ride inland and visited an excellent
outdoor Hill Tribe Museum, with entire Li and Miao villages set up, two ethnic minorities who inhabit the island of Hainan. We saw traditional dance performances,
snake and lizard wine making, turtles shaped traditional houses, and a lot of good photo opportunities.
Finally, we did a hike up to
Luhuitou Peninsula, a sort of love themed park on a peak overlooking Sanya town and harbor, perfectly timed for an incredible sunset over the beautiful southern Hainan coast.
For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com
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