Blogs from Sanya, Hainan, China, Asia - page 9

Our usual ritual, of breaking our 'no drinking before travelling' ritual, had set up a day from hell. Now, one traveller felt a little peachy, one a little more than peachy and one was there in body, but definately not there in mind! I won't tell who, but lets just say Ollie could definitively map out every toilet from Sanya to HaiKou! And believe me there was a lot of stops! The boat was leaving from HaiKou at 6pm, so we had plenty of time, but we decided not to risk it and checked out BEFORE MIDDAY, and we were at the ferry terminal by 4pm. We went for a nice bite to eat at an upmarket coffee house, and lounged in there sofa like chairs and waited to board the ferry. As the accomodation on ... read more

So .. you know how I was complaining about the cold? Yeah, now we're in 32 degree heat - I guess that's what I get for complaining so much. The thousands of kilometres were covered in two long distance trains. One trip, 25 hours worth, got us from Xian (in cenral China) down to Guangzhou (very close to Hong Kong). We were planning to spend about 4-6 days visiting Guangzhou (epic shopping) and Hong Kong and Macau (epic night life, food and sights .. not to mention western amenities). Unfortunately, one large trade show (Guangzhou) and the Chinese government changing its policies on visas (to go to Hong Kong or Macau essentially means you leave China ... and we have only one more entry to China left ...which we are hoping to use for Tibet) put ... 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

During the Spring Festival, many Chinese were scared of travelling because of the disastrous snowstorms in the south. My family hesitated and just decided to go, an easy way to settle down the endless discussion. Although many places were not as warm as we expected, we had a great time together. I hope to start my travel blog with Hainan Island-Asian Hawaii, to share with you all the joys and insights I have gained through travelling. Hainan is a tropical island just off the southern coast of the China mainland and across the Gulf of Tonkin from Vietnam. It has a totally unique culture and history. We arrived in Sanya, the "end of the earth", on Feb 14th, a romantic day to start with. Warm breeze touched our faces, arms, shoulders, and ankles. Comeing from the ... read more