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Wenchang, Hainan

After some deliberation, our next trip out of Haikou was to the Wenchang area. This area is along the northeastern part of Hainan island. There are tours that one can go on to see the Wenchang area attractions such as coconut plantations. However, we decided to go it on our own in order to travel at a more relaxed pace and to cut costs. We rode the bus from Haikou to Wenchang. The ride was only about one hour or so. Once in Wenchang, we transfered to another bus to Long Lou Zheng. The bus ride w...

Eating Sugar Cane

Fresh sugar cane is a Hainan Island treat. There's vendors everywhere that sell sugar cane. Here's your guide to eating it. Buy the sugar cane from a vendor. The vendor will skin the cane for you. They will either leave some of the skin at one end so you can hold the cane or she can skin it completely and then give you a small plastic bag so you can hold the cane at the bottom. Bite into the cane.  Chew  And Chew.  And chew...  Once flavor is gone. Spit (preferably into some sort of refuse conta...

Hanging in Haikou

Haikou sits at the northern tip of Hainan island and is the capitol of Hainan province. Its a bigger city than Sanya and less of a vacation spot. There are, however, beaches and other attractions within and near Haikou. Today, however, we decided to just spend a little time exploring the city. From Haidian island we walked into the old part of Haikou. We walked near the clock tower that sits on the banks of the Haidian river. There were crowds of people along the banks or the river fishing. When...

Monkeying Around Monkey Island

The Sanya area has many attractions. Of them, Monkey Island, is a popular destination. We contemplated whether we should try to arrange our own transportation but then we realized that there are many day tours that visit Monkey Island for very affordable prices. We paid 120 RMB per person for a day tour that included transportation and admission to a Li and Miao minority village, a couple of visits to craft factories, lunch, and the cable car ride to Monkey Island. Our first stop was to a factor...

Sanya, Hainan Island

After our overnight train ride, we ended up at the Sanya rail station. We managed to squeeze through a mob of people to get onto a local bus that took us to Da Dong Hai. Da Dong Hai is a tourist area on the eastern part of Sanya. Its main attraction is about 3-4 KM of beautiful palm tree lined beach. The beach also is lined with many resorts with restaurants and bars facing the beach. Just a short walk from the beach are all kinds of shopping, restaurants (both western and Chinese), fruit stands...

Train To Sanya

We decided to take a little excursion to Sanya and Hainan Island. Our route? Train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou and then an overnight sleeper train to Sanya. From Shenzhen, we arrived at the Luo Hu train station and was a little confused. There seems to be about three different waiting rooms. One waiting room is only for trains from Shenzhen to Guangzhou. It turns out that we were taking a long distance train and getting off at Guangzhou. Therefore, our correct waiting room was not for the regular...