It was July, and both Chris and I were desperate for a vacation. I had just completed my hardest semester yet of studying Chinese (I realize now that it only ever gets more and more difficult….) and Chris was slogging through one of his busiest periods of the year. Add to this the facts that we hadn’t had a vacation since our Christmas trip to the Philippines and that it had been an exceedingly rainy summer. It was cloudy and steamy; we hadn’t seen the sun in weeks and we were starting to feel the onset of SADness (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
Our original plan was to head up to Xinjiang. The sunny, dry, large, far-northwestern province of China where the population is composed mainly of Muslim Uyghur people. The town of Kashgar was an important stop on the Silk Road, and has the largest weekend open-market in all of Asia. Xinjiang is one of the few remaining parts of China that we want to visit but haven’t had a chance to yet. This plan got shot (literally) when inter-racial riots (between Uyghur and Han Chinese) in Urumqi, the provincial capital, created an explosion of violence in towns across the province. As a result, travel to the region was restricted.
Alternatively, we had heard that Hainan, which lies south of China’s Guangdong province, east of Vietnam and SW of Hong Kong, is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaii of China”. It is a relatively big island, populated largely by representatives of the Miao minority (also known as Hmong in Vietnam). During the winter it is flooded by millions of mainland Chinese looking for a little bit of sun and warmth. Early August, however, is the height of their off-season. Flights were cheaper, accommodations were cheaper, and crowds would be minimal. While doing online research we blundered onto the website of the Boao Inn, an inn run by a Chinese / American couple that promised a B&B experience that we never thought would be possible in China. As their name implies, the B&B is located in a small town called Boao (famous for the annual Asian Forum meeting that big names like George Bush, Bill Gates and most Asian political leaders have attended), located far away from the crowded cities of Haikou and Sanya.
Elizabeth, the proprietor of the Boao inn picked us up at the Haikou airport in northern Hainan in the early afternoon and offered to take us by a nearby volcano park. The park was very nice; beautifully landscaped, with trails that led up to the top of a small volcano and along the rim, providing lookouts to two sub-volcanoes nearby. This park was an amazing introduction to Hainan Island. The sun was shining; the vegetation was lush and tropical. It was hot, probably hotter than it was in Chengdu, but because we were surrounded by trees and there was a nice breeze, it didn’t feel anywhere near as hot as Chengdu had been. The air was really clean and we commented on how disturbing it was that we could so easily tell the difference.
One other major thing that we noticed was the butterflies. On our short hike up to the crater and around the rim we must have noticed 15 or so different species in a wide variety of color combinations: brown and purple, white and orange, brown and blue, black and turquoise, brown and orange…… they were amazing and they were everywhere.
We arrived in Boao later that afternoon. The cozy four-bedroom inn sat at the end of a quiet beachside road. A small, winding path along the side of the inn led past a Taoist monastery and out to the beach. Elizabeth made fruit smoothies for us and we headed upstairs to unpack and take naps. The first day of our vacation had already provided us with everything that we were looking for, and the amazing dinner that we had at the nearby seaside restaurant (a large place with several large aquariums containing live blowfish, various lobsters, clams of all kinds, and other treasures from the sea…… all there for our potential eating pleasure) where we ordered a local specialty called boao yu “boao fish”- a delicious steamed ocean bass served with a light sauce made of soy-sauce, garlic, and the tangy juice of a small citrus fruit that Filipinos call calamanci. We slept better that night than eit her of us had slept in a very long time.
Back when I was living in San Diego, I went through a phase when I would wake up early (around sunrise) and head off to the beach for a morning run (followed by coffee and a muffin somewhere along the beach). It was amazingly cathartic and I had been looking forward to doing the same along the long beach in Boao. Chris got up with me and together we walked to the ocean and ran north with the ocean waves on our right. Having lived in DC and now Chengdu for the last 12+ years, I haven’t run on the beach in quite some time. It’s HARD to run on the beach! The soft sand (while great for the joints) is energy-sapping and in very little time I was gasping. I was also very, very happy.
Breakfast was pancakes, bacon and sausage, scrambled eggs, banana bread, fresh fruit, fruit smoothies and coffee. I honestly don’t think that there is another place in all of China that offers a western-style B&B experience like the little Boao Inn does – each day was a feast of pancakes, grits, oatmeal, French toast, or biscuits with gravy. After breakfast we decided to walk around town (this is a THREE street town mind you), which of course didn’t take long, so we walked back down to the beach. We stopped at a small restaurant to order another local specialty chao bing “fried ice-cream”, which isn’t actually “fried”, but is a flash-frozen concoction of sweetened condensed milk, juice and fruit, and topped with nuts. Could it get any better? Yes… it could. We arrived at the beach adjacent an amazing hotel complex, set our stuff under a woven cabana and proceeded to frolic in the waves. “Frolic” is not a word that use lightly….. or ever for that matter, but you have to understand how badly we needed this vacation and how much a good frolic was in order.
On our way to a noodle place for dinner we passed by a seafood restaurant in town that had two sea-turtles in their “for the menu” aquariums on display in their front window. I was both outraged and heartsick to see these turtles in this situation. We had no intention of eating there, but we stopped to ask the proprietors if they were aware that catching these kinds of turtles and eating them was against the law in China. We finally asked how much it would cost to buy a turtle alive, in hopes that we could take it back to the ocean to set it free. The cost was dear….the equivalent of a full year’s tuition. It was far more than we could afford, but not out of reach of the wealthy Chinese businessmen that come and stay in places like the Shangri La hotel, who might want to impress their clients with a fancy dinner. When we returned to the Inn we found that Elizabeth had baked an apple pie. Wonderful! I needed a good dessert to get my mind off of those turtles and that night I said a little “please free the turtles” prayer before drifting off to sleep.
The next day Elizabeth suggested that we take a boat ride upriver to visit a small traditional village and then down to the delta to see a long strip of land known as the “jade belt”. Elizabeth came along in order to introduce the tour to her newly hired assistant “Rainy”, which was great because Rainy spoke the local dialect and was able to help us communicate with the villagers. The boat rides, the walk through the village, and the dinner at the riverside “floating” restaurant were a great way to spend the afternoon/evening. Because it was late Elizabeth offered to drive Rainy home and in the small village of Shitou (which means “stone”) we visited with her uncle, a beetle nut farmer and his family, who treated us to tea and conversation, showed us his pet python, and sent us home with several coconuts as a parting gift. These kinds of opportunities, to spend quality time with locals, don’t often present themselves on vacations. It was wonderful.
The next day, after an early breakfast, we took the four-hour bus down to Sanya, the big tourist destination on Hainan island where the overwhelming majority of visitors to the island end up staying. Sanya is famous for its natural sandy bays, which reminded both of us of Hawaii. Dadonghai Bay actually reminded us of a weird combination of Waikiki and the Jersey shore. The scenery was beautiful and tropical, while the boardwalk was out-of-control with vendors selling “beach” paraphernalia, and the beaches were crowded with tourists (which made us wonder what the place must look like during high season)! There were two things about Dadonghai that we found particularly fascinating. One was the inordinate number of Russian tourists and their impact on the culture here. Russian Cyrillic signs were everywhere, as were large Russian women with over-dyed hair and large Russian men with their undersized speedos! It was all very disturbing. The second (equally disturbing) thing was all of the Chinese tour-group members in their matchy-matchy
“Hawaiian print” ensembles. If there ever was an ideal example of the Chinese “group-think” mentality, this is surely it. Practically every Chinese couple that we saw was wearing matching shorts and shirts. I can imagine that after one couple buys a set, the group-think mentality takes over and everyone else thinks to themselves, “Wow, they’re really cool looking in their matching outfits…. We need to get some too.”
After a full day down in Sanya we took the bus back to Boao to find that Elizabeth had made a carrot cake!!! We were so glad that we had decided to stay in Boao. Zero crowds, empty beaches, and carrot cake! Their pet bird, a tame Asian mynah named “Freddy” was out of his cage and flying around the house. He landed on our heads a few times, trying to get to our cake!
On Friday we had a light breakfast because we had been invited to accompany Rechard and Elizabeth to visit the home of a local wealthy businessman friend of theirs who had invited them over for lunch. This businessman is originally from a small rural village near Boao, but has made his fortune in China’s new free market economy and lives most of the year near Shanghai. He makes annual pilgrimages back home which managed to coincide with our stay in Boao. It was interesting, this experience of hanging out with the filthy rich in a quaint little village composed mainly of his poor relations that still farmed the rice paddies and grew beetle nut for a living. It was even more interesting talking to his son, a reasonably normal kid, for someone who can get pretty much anything he wants and attends a prestigious private school in Hangzhou, one of the most beautiful old-towns in China. He had yet to develop the same sense of value for the simple life and didn’t understand why his father dragged the family down to this village every year. How could he? He’s rich and sheltered and doesn’t know much about the “real world”. He dreams of studying overseas one day where I imagine he’s likely got get a nice slap of reality…..
After lunch we made our way to the beach where we napped on the sand, getting up occasionally to cool off in the ocean. We weren’t super hungry by the time dinner-time rolled around so we strolled up the beach for several kilometers until we found a beachside restaurant with gorgeous views of the ocean from their open deck. We had dinner there and made our way back to the Boao Inn, walking along the darkened nighttime beach. It was all very nice.
We got up early to play what would be our lat set of tennis on Hainan at a nearby hotel. It was truly like having our own private courts. The day’s agenda was simple, as we planned to tag along with Elizabeth as she did errands in Boao and the neighboring regional capital. She needed to replenish her groceries at the local markets and along the way we hit some tourist sites including an old pagoda and the famous coconut factory. The coconut factory was a real treat…. Literally! Given Boao’s tropical climate, coconuts and their many products are a big industry in Boao. This is all highlighted at the Coconut Factory, a complex that combines both production and retail of all things coconut related: candies, milk, etc. The afternoon, per usual, was spent at the beach relaxing. That evening, our last in Boao, we went for a foot massage at the local parlor.
Relaxing on the beach, foot massages, amazing breakfasts, ocean-side meals…. Indeed everything about this vacation was exactly what we were looking for and what was exactly what we needed after a particularly busy and hectic spring and early summer. This blog was written several months after the fact. It is cold and cloudy in Chengdu now, but remembering Hainan, with its warm weather and warm people makes us very glad that we had decided to go there and will help us cope with the long and gray winter ahead of us.
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