Hainan Sanya Trip, Beach It Is
Hainan, touted as the Hawaii of China, isn’t as bad as I had expected. I had visions of Phuket, overcrowded beaches, ugly beach developments, basically mass tourism at its worst. It wasn’t and I’m happy for it.
Hainan Yalong Bay
Yalong Bay is one of the better parts of Hainan. There are only 4 star and above hotels plus beach. A lot of soft sanded, very white beach. The roads are clean and new and there is an abundance of flowers, palm trees and lawns on the side. 40 minutes from the airport which should set you back between 60 and 80 Rmb if you take a taxi.
Hainan Hotels
All the big names are represented here, Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton etc plus a score of local 4 & 5 star hotels. We’re not yet in the 5 star range so we settled for the Golden Palm Resort, a 4 star Chinese hotel. It’s decent, spacious, has a great pool and is 58 seconds from the beach, according the advertisement in the elevator. I didn’t time it but it’s pretty close.
The only thing you shouldn’t do here is eat. I have read before restaurant reviews about rubber tasting tuna and I now know what it is. The food is horrible, both their breakfast and their BBQ seafood buffet. Processed factory food with no taste. Even the three dotted crabs had lost any meat they may have had.
Which brings us to the food and as there are only Hotels finding decent local and affordable food nearby is not easy.
A 10 minute taxi ride takes you to Tiandu, a 2 street village that has several fish restaurants, not great quality but decent enough and a good alternative. To splash out go to one of the western buffets. We went to the Hilton that has a buffet in the weekend. Their lamb chops were delectable (first and last time I use this word ever) and the price was 195 + 15 % service tax. Drinks are not included.
Things to do in Hainan
When we bought our travel package we had the option to go cheaper if we would join some day trips to tourist traps. We didn’t. If you do sign up for the cheaper option and decide later you won’t join you’ll have to pay a penalty. What would China be without penalties anyway, financial penalties in the work place, penalties when you travel.
We spend our 4 days mostly on the beach. Why else go to Hainan, culture? The beaches are perfect, the water is warm and the sun mostly behind the clouds this time of the year but it still beats the Shanghai winter.
Posted
Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 9:51 am,
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December 9th, 2006 23:40
Some of the more noteworthy tidbits that happened in China last week, ok, in the last 2 weeks, as I was busy getting some sun and beach in Hainan for a couple of days. …
January 15th, 2008 22:11
I love Sanya, but I haven’t been there for quite a while. Hope to be there again soon.
June 15th, 2008 01:12
would like report on a robbery that happened in Tiandu close to Sanya in the province of Hainan (China) on June 6 2008. This region is located in the Southernmost region of Hainan where the most expensive resorts are scattered across the beaches. Hainan has a reputation as being as “The Hawaii of Asia” but as we learned, there are a lot of petty crimes against foreigners here done by localized organized crime bandits. Hotels rent bicycles to foreigners and riding around the countryside is normal. We did not see any signs posted up warning travelers of bandits. We were riding bikes along Yalong bay and into the town of Tiandu (before Dadonghai), unaware that we were being followed by local bandits . Three local men from the village (Miao), sped up behind us and it looked like they were going to crash into us, instead, they had a knife or scissors and cut our bag while we were riding bikes. They sped away before we could even react and this happened at 1pm in the afternoon with lots of cars and people around. This was surprising to us it was in the open and happened very quickly. We were on a busy road and luckily they did not push our bike into open traffic. Fortunately, we did not lose our passports but two cameras were stolen with other smaller items. We reported this to the local police and became aware that this type of crime is common in Sanya and not well controlled. As mentioned by the police, Sanya has a huge population of ethnic minorities ( 1 million) who live in secluded villages. These people can only speak their dialect, have no education and as one of the police officers said “ you can ask a woman how many children she gave birth to and she won’t remember” . The police officer says that a lot of these men don’t work and gamble all day. IN fact, they pay for their habits by stealing from foreigners. In Sanya, I saw many of these poor minority people and there was a sense of desperation for money. I did not feel safe at all and I would like to advise others about their public safety if they choose to visit this place. I came away from this experience that some people are willing to steal money, at all costs. I would not return to this place.