Hainan, the Chinese Hawaii/Las Vegas/Jersey Shore

Back in December, as the cold Siberian wind blew in from the North, Xavier and I snuggled up in our warm cozy apartment in a permanent pajamafied state: reading, studying Chinese and watching Seinfeld. Since Xavier is a better student than I am, I did what I do best and used my skills as a talented procrastinator to begin searching online for cool places for us to go during our winter holiday.

I quickly discovered that down beyond Hong Kong at the southernmost tip of China lies the "Hawaii of China", Hainan. An island, now that's what we need! I sat in my long underwear and cashmere socks imagining sandy beaches tinted pink with magnificent sunsets, clear cool water with bright shiny fish dancing around my toes and warm breezes cooling my tanned skin. I even got off the couch and did a few sit-ups and leg lifts thinking about my neon green bikini.

My eyes soon grew weary, midterm exams had to be graded and we put our vacation planning aside.

Still, when I could, I asked around a little bit and got conflicting responses. Every single Chinese person that I spoke to said Hainan was amazing. The freshest fish, the most beautiful beaches, the warmest sun... a paradiso. Most Westerners I asked, had another opinion. One told me, "It's awesome, we stayed in a really fancy resort and everything was included, we never even saw any Chinese people!" 

Others were more emphatic, "Are you kidding? Hainan is terrible, don't waste your time or your money."

My boss, Professor White, warned me about the shock I would incur when I arrived at the beach and found fully clothed Chinese bathing in the sea along side Russians drinking vodka in skimpy bikinis. He told me, "Well, it would certainly be an interesting sociological study I guess."



But here we are, living in China, learning about China and we wanted an authentic Chinese experience. So we listened to the locals. We bought our tickets in December and a few days later I found this article about Hainan in the New York Times.

On China’s Hainan Island, the Boom Is Deafening

Here is the link to a series of photos published with the New York Times article. Amazing!

In many ways, Hainan is a tropical paradise, but the most beautiful places are not listed in the guide book. You have to be willing to search the island, speak to people (or try your best) and seek the path less traveled.

There are a lot of pictures so I have broken the trip down into the following parts:

Click away and enjoy!!!

Sunny Sanya

Li Village

Wuzhishan

Shuiman & Old Haikou



We did have fresh coconut milk every day ;-)