Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

Back to Shanghai with Spring Airlines

Our airline was Spring Airlines, one of the very few official budget airlines in China. I already mentioned in a previous post that Hainan Airport sucks at the moment due to ongoing construction. Flying with Spring Airlines doesn’t make it any better. It’s the ultimum of cattle class. Leg spaces is non-existing, a tall foreigner next to me had his legs folded up against the lap tray table (it wasn’t opened) the whole flight. Spring Airlines doesn’t offer food for free so bring some with you.

A lasting memory of Hainan

Despite my occasional ranting I like Hainan and its beaches. One of the things I noticed is that the average Chinese tourist has evolved from a baseball cap wearing tour group member to the couple wearing unisex Chinafied Hawaiian combinations. Give it a couple of more years and they may start to dress themselves as individuals.

When we booked to go to Hainan I had visions of big juicy prawns. They stayed visions. Wind is something that seems to make the prawns wary to get caught in the fisher men’s nets unfortunately and windy it was.

The Seafood Fresh Market

There’s a great Seafood Fresh Market (Chun Yuan Seafood Square) in Sanya city. About a 30 minute drive from Yalong Bay. Daily fresh fish, right from the boat, is available here. You pick your fish, shellfish or other creatures from the sea and they’ll prepare it on the spot. For about 150 Rmb including beer and veggies plus a live show of cutting up your chosen fish and shells. You’ll be satisfied.

From Yalong Bay there’s a blue double-decker bus that takes you to the West Station (Xi Zhan) in Sanya Town. Raise your hand and it will stop. From here you can take a small bus, no. 202, 204 or 207 to the Seafood Market. Get off the bus when you see a big building from the ICBC (Industrial & Commercial Bank China) on your right side . Take the first street left and keep on walking [it bends to the right] until you’ll find the Seafood market on your left. You can’t miss it.

Address:
Chun Yuan Seefood Square
Ji Xiang Lu (500 metres north of city garden)

Tomorrow more about the way back and Spring Airlines

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.

This week is going to be Hainan week, or at least for the coming days. Why Hainan? Because we went there and I felt like a good write up of the Chinese Hawaii would be in place. It’s a pretty nice island but before I’ll get into that, in the next post, first some travel advice.

They are making Hainan airport bigger which results in having hardly any space right now. We traveled back last Sunday and the whole place is small, unorganized and pretty much a disaster. If you go to Hainan, make sure you won’t go during a holiday like Christmas as I can imagine it will be worse.

And no, I have no understanding for disorganization so don’t thank for me it.

Quiz question!!!

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see the Hainan airport logo?