Winter Trip--Hainan Island

After Shanghai we expected Hainan Island to be extremely hot. However, as you can see from the sweater, it was quite cool. Our tour guide's parents spend the winter there and they told him it was the coldest weather they'd seen in the 5 years they had been coming down. But the sun was shining and it was very pleasant--not swimming in the ocean weather, but a nice break from the cold north.

Hainan Island is the southern most point of China and helps to make the boundary of the Gulf of Tonkin so it is actually south east of Hanoi, Viet

Nam. Anciently, several emperors came to Hainan for the winter. They determined that it was one of the four corners of the earth. (Remember the square earth from the museum in Shanghai.) Anyway, as we walked down the path to the ocean, the view was wonderful. When we reached the water, we walked along the sand and around many HUGE boulders to get to the rock that was determined anciently to be the corner of the earth. It was interesting to me because I expected it to be the end of the island at least, but actually the shoreline continued on for miles.

Don't know just what criteria was used to make a "corner" but here is the rock that marks it. Maybe it is because the rock is square. Anyway, we have now been to one of the four corners of the earth.

Many of the rocks had Chinese writing on them. There were signs telling what was carved on the rocks and who was the emperor or leader that had the carving done. Many were painted red so the tourists could read them. The one here was supposed to bring good luck to the person who rubbed the side of the rock. You can see someone leaning against the boulder. I guess rubbing was not enough for him. We also went over and rubbed on the rock. I figure at our age we need all the luck we can get.

Along with the beach there were several gardens in the scenic area. One had many bushes trimmed and decorated to look like creatures. Here is Jim with his head in the dragon's mouth. If you look closely, the tail goes way off in the distance.

I found myself petting a whale. It is the closest I expect to ever get to a "real" whale.

There were also several elephants "roaming" through the gardens.

Since we live in the city, this was the first time we had been in a country location. It was also the first time we saw the typical pointed woven hats that are associated with rural China. If you notice, you will see not only the typical Chinese pointed hat, but ones with a flat top that I associate more with the Viet Nam area. These women were just sitting and enjoying the sunshine.

We discovered that we were on Hainan at the same time as an international orchid show. It was the last day, but we managed to get over to see the flowers. They were beautiful and the displays were both fanciful and elegant. Here are a couple of the more exotic. The first is the center piece of the show. It is a big world globe that rotated around. The countries are all made out of orchids, quite an amazing display.

Here was one of the more fanciful displays. I think this one came from somewhere in the south Pacific area. Orchids came from as far away as Europe and Australia as well as all over China, Japan and southeast Asia. We had a good time looking at all the flowers.

After leaving the orchid show, we ran across this scene. I'm not sure what these are called. The little gal mixed some batter and put it in this machine. Then she turned it on and out of the spout came some brown, shredded wheat-like substance. She then took some scissors and cut it into the small squares you can see in the bowl. We were curious so we bought a bag for $1.50. There were enough to share with all the teachers. It didn't taste bad. Some thought it was actually quite good. I wouldn't go that far, but it did have more flavor than a cardboard box, although the texture was probably the same.

The next day we took a trip to Monkey Island--a small island off the coast of Hainan Island. We rode over on a cable car and had a bird's eye view of the ocean and the fishing vessels. The monkeys were cute and all over the place. Here is a mother and a small monkey.

We saw a couple of shows with trained monkeys. This was the most amazing act we saw. The goat walked along on the tightrope and when the trainer placed the ball on the rope, the goat got on it and balanced himself. All the time the monkey was on his back, jumping around and doing tricks. It was quite an awesome display!

Monkeys were not the only cute sight on Monkey Island. There were crowds of people, especially children who loved the antics of the monkeys. This little boy is dressed in one of the ethnic costumes of southern China. He was so cute, I couldn't resist a picture.

Hainan was discovered by Russian tourists long before it became an attraction for the Chinese. I imagine the Russians really enjoy getting out of Siberia and going to Hainan for a winter holiday. While we did not want to go swimming, the cold air and water didn't seem to bother the Russians who swam anyway. At any rate, most of the signs on Hainan are in Russian. We ate dinner one evening in a Russian restaurant. It was good and we enjoyed the meal.

The other two nights we ate at a courtyard where there were many little eating places--sort of like a food court at a mall, only outside. We did have some good food, but thought the skewers of raw meat, fish, squid, etc. were worthy of a picture. We did not eat the squid, but had some good pizza, crepes, and other interesting items.

Our next stop is Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Keep tuned for those adventures.