4 days on Hainan Island -what to do

One might wonder… except for swimming and sweating in the sun, what else is there to do at Hainan island?

Well, actually… not that much.

It was way too warm to do any kind of shopping during daytime. Also, like I said in my previous blog post, clothes were too expensive anyways.


"shopping streets" in Dadong Bay.

Dadong Bay’s beach strip was well equipped with restaurants and bars. We tried some of the restaurants but weren’t overly impressed (like always: nice location but so-so food). Since Willing is a non-drinker we swapped the beers/cocktails for ice cream/fruit/sorbet every night. Suited me quite fine. I’m not that big on booze anyways.

We all know the importance of eating in China...

Enough food on the table?

What I did enjoy however, was morning beach power walks and pool swims. Poor Willing was dragged up at 7am every morning, forced down to the beach where we walked, ran (just a little bit, too hot actually) and then went for a swim. Or actually, now I am lying. I didn’t get her down to the beach every morning, because after our first ‘session’ she was so sore that she almost couldn’t get out of bed, and threw a towel at me when I tried to get her to come with me the next morning.

How can you resist a power walk when you see this? (well apparently because you are tired and because you hate power walking... I learned)

Swimming went a bit better though. And man, it was nice to swim again! No one spitting in the pool, no one zigzag swimming in front of you. No children playing exactly where you want to swim… And the tired, but fresh, feeling afterwards? Ahhh…. Wonderful! I might have to take up swimming this summer in Scandinavia.

When we weren’t eating, swimming, power walking, sun bathing or sleeping, we went to a spa where I had The Best Foot Massage Ever. And why? Well because they used cupping! On the feet! I’ve never tried this before and I would be dishonest if I said it was a pleasant experience, because it kind of hurt, but again… I felt really fresh afterwards, and it was kind of fun to try.

Possible to have a massage outside as well as inside
We preferred inside... 

There were also some famous hot springs that we were recommended to visit, but decided to skip. The thought of sitting in a hot spring when it’s 35 degrees and humid made me nauseous. Although apparently it’s quite an experience because in the water swims a bunch of small, hungry fishes that apparently enjoy eating people’s dead skin. So while you’re sitting there in the water, they are performing some sort of live peeling (read: nibbling on your body) on your skin, that (according to one local) “feels just like massage.” Some of my friends have tried this (we call it ‘fish peeling since I don’t know the official name) and they have liked it. Now I feel a bit bummed that I didn’t try, but oh well.. maybe next time!

What we did try, however, was the tourist bus to Sanya Bay (cheap and OK) and then a beach ride with what I guess can be called some sort of bike tuk tuk version. For 2 yuan he drove us along the beach where we ooohed and aaaaahed to everything. It was fun until we got off and he tried to convince us to go to some pearl market. We obviously refused.

You can also go on Banana Boat rides, try water skiing etc, but it was quite pricey so we skipped it. Also, I once tried water skiing in Indonesia and I couldn’t walk for 2 days afterwards. Much harder than what it looks like!

Other things to do on this island:

Eat ice cream...
Take photos
Go for a windy ride with the tourist bus

Hainan -Dadong Bay, Russians and fishy fruit scales

Back in a rainy Suzhou after 4 amazing days in a beach paradise. Hainan surprised me in a lot of ways… first of all, it didn’t really feel like China, but more like a mini Thailand with a lot of Russians and Chinese tourists instead of Europeans. It was extremely touristy, and, I wouldn’t describe the Hainan locals (at the places where we were) as very friendly, but I believe that’s often the case with places that rely on tourism. Also, why didn’t anyone tell me about ‘Hainan-hua’?! There I came, thinking I would be in a perfect environment to practice my Mandarin, only to realize how different the local dialect was compared to Mandarin. It took me almost 2 days before I felt comfortable talking to people. The local dialect was so… different to listen to, and at first, a lot of things didn’t make any sense, taking me back to a very familiar feeling of not-understanding-anything-in-China…

We stayed at two different hotels at Dadong Bay in Sanya. There are apparently 3 different tourist spots to choose from in Sanya: Sanya Bay, Yalong Bay and Dadong Bay. Sanya Bay is the cheapest place, with the ‘least nice’ beach (although to me it looked pretty OK!). We went there once and found it OK, although a little bit empty in terms of life and people. Having said that, however, I should point out that now is not the high season for visiting Hainan. I believe that Sanya bay, like the rest of the island, gets quite packed during public holidays.

There’s also Yalong Bay, that’s said to be the nicest area with a lot of international five star hotels and private, beautiful beaches. Although we had intended to head over to take a look, we never made it. We simply enjoyed ourselves at the Dadong Bay area too much. There were so many restaurants, cafes, bars, shops and fruit vendors to keep us busy with, not to mention our hotel pool and the (very nice looking) beach. When we picked where to stay we read that Yalong Bay was quite expensive and maybe not so good when it comes to restaurant choices (unless you want to eat at your hotel every day). Neither me nor Willing are loaded in any way, so we felt that the five-star environment might not be for us (not in this lifetime…). Anyways, I really liked the liveliness of Dadong Bay and would recommend it to anyone who’s not going to Hainan for a honeymoon purpose.

Fellow Laowais who intend to visit Hainan, however, be aware! Everyone will take you for Russian, no matter what you look like. Now, I have lived one year in Finland (with a geographical closeness to Russia) so I thought I had seen a lot of Russians before (they tend to come to Helsinki to do a lot of shopping)… but when I came to Hainan I realized I hadn’t: because this place was like a mini Russia in a beach town! Russian shops, restaurants, locals speaking Russian, Russian men in overly small and tight beach shorts, insanely many women in string bikinis… We even spotted some fur shops!

The whole ‘oh another Russian laowai’ got tiresome pretty fast. Everywhere I went eager sales people came up to me trying to lure me into their restaurant/shop/fruit stall with some Russian ‘pick up’ lines. Most of the times I just walked by, but at times (when I was tired, dehydrated, and hungry) I actually said something quite nasty, like ‘”you know what, not every laowai here is a Russian!” in Chinese and walked on. This phrase was met with astonishment and laughter. One guy actually ran after me:

-Oh, miss! Sorry, I didn’t know! So where are you from then?

But I wasn’t in the mood for talking.

-Can’t you tell? I am from China!

-Ehhh….? You are… well… no… I mean…

-What? You can’t tell?

One girl in a shop must have been extra eager to sell, however, because when we pulled this line she looked at me and Willing for a long time, before she said:

-Yeah, actually… you guys look alike! Are you two sisters? (Willing is from Indonesia: she’s 10 cm shorter than me, half of my width, 20 shades darker, doesn’t suffer from the big-nose/big-feet-syndrome, and has skin that tans after 10 minutes in the sun). We stumbled out from that shop, laughing our guts out.

As for shopping though: it’s not to be recommended in the touristy parts of Hainan. Everything was quite pricey (for someone who’s used to picking up quite nice dresses for less than 100 kuai in Shanghai) and we limited our shopping to buying fruits only. The fruit shopping also proved tricky as we suspect there was something fishy with the fruit scales that the vendors used. We bought giant litchis (or King litchis as I believe they are called?) at one fruit stall for 10 rmb/ half kilo. Another vendor sold the same litchis for 8 rmb/ half kilo. However, his litchis were for some reason much ‘heavier’ than the ones we had previously bought, so in the end we got the same amount for the same money! Tricky business.

One day we caught a bus to a less touristy and more local shopping area (although I instantly suffered from the heat and caught the same bus back 20 minutes later! Haha!) which was much better. Willing spent some hours there and came back with bags full of exotic fruits and some cheap dresses.

OK, that’s enough for today I believe (did some of you fall asleep already?!). More Hainan photos and stories to come tomorrow!

Bye bye, beach life

So long, beautiful

Coming back to Suzhou today, yey! Missed me? Well I sure have missed blogging! See you later this afternoon!


Hello, Suzhou

Yunqi Chayan -one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing

It's been a while since I wrote a "I love this restaurant" post, so I figured now could be the time. This restaurant is called Yunqi Chayan, and is located in Beijing. It's my favorite restaurant in the capital of China. Everybody I've ever taken there loves it too, so in my opinion it's really good!

Yunqi Chayan offers a "tea cuisine," where tea is used as an ingredient in almost every dish. However, if the tea taste isn't your 'cup' (haha! Gosh, I need a better sense of humour) I can tell you that most of the dishes in Yunqi Chayan are not overly sharp in taste. Rather, you can see the restaurant as a place where tea is not just for quenching thirst or served besides dishes, but can also be smelled and tasted.

I haven't tasted anything bad (yet) from the menu, and my recommendations includes the aloe vera 'soup' (on the first dish photo), the fish, the cabbage and the green tea tarts (Those tarts were so good that I ordered an extra 6 of them to go when we had finished our meal there the first time!) The restaurant is located in a hutong at Houhai. It might be a bit tricky to find it, but it's worth every minute of searching. And prices? Well, definitely reasonable. Not dirt cheap, but still cheap.

Yunqi Chayan (English name: Nowhere Catering) 43 A, Mao'er Hutong, Dianmenwai Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. Telephone: 6400 2077. Opening hours: 10:30am - late

Photo special: Yunnan's countryside and minority villages

All these photos are from a trip I made to Yunnan in May 2006. The villages I visited were quite poor but the people living there are still some the most friendly and generous people I've ever encountered. All in all, I'd say it was an amazing experience and I am grateful I got a chance to visit these remote places. Can't wait to make it back to Yunnan later this year.

More photo specials from Yunnan:

The Children of Daxi

Lost in a forest in Yunnan


(Ps. Today's Sweden's National Day, so Happy Sweden Day everybody! I'll celebrate from Hainan with an extra large, blue cocktail that I'll sip on while wearing my yellow bikini).