Eric's Beijing Diary

Just got back from Hainan Island, the "Hawaii" of China. One of those last minute faculty outings. I was skeptical about trying to do Hainan in a weekend, but it actually worked out quite well.

We flew down to Hainan on Friday evening. Maofu had reserved rooms at a place with a pretty nice breakfast buffet. I guess they have both a Chinese buffet and a western buffet. I didn't see the Chinese one, because, although I really do like Chinese food, I have never been a big fan of Chinese breakfast. The western buffet was an essential, because there are so many Russian tourists. You turn on the TV and see old Russian movies. And many signs are in both Chinese and Russian.

There are three major beaches in Sanya. Our hotel was right above Dadonghai, but Maofu had arranged for us to go to Yalong Bay, which was a good thing, because the swimming beach at Yalong Bay is really nice. I was surprised how warm the water was. I don't mean like a hot tub or something, but really nice.

In the afternoon, we took a boat to Wuzhizhou Island. My Lonely Planet Guide shows this island on the map of Hainan, but there's nothing written about it in the book. The tour of the island is guided--you can't just walk around. But it is really very pretty. Just toward the end of the walk,we came upon a large swimming pool fed by a spring or springs. It as completely unattended, and there was no fence or anything, so we took advantage of it and jumped in. Really refreshing water, and not cold at all.

Yesterday, we took a tour of the tropical rain forest. This place had a lot of tourists, but if you've never seen a tropical rain forest before, it is quite informative.

I am really not one for rushed vacations--I would never think to take a trip to Hainan for a weekend. But this trip went really well.