Hainan
Name : Hainan
Chinese name : 海南
Status : Province
Capital : Haikou
Population : 8,952,800 (2013)
Area : 33,920 km²
Hainan is a unique province in that it is an island. Highly prized today by Chinese and foreign tourists, it was long overlooked and neglected. Hainan Island quickly became the new Chinese paradise and indeed the holiday destination of newly-minted billionaires. Its fine sandy beaches offer views of turquoise waters and are the island's primary draw.
History
Since the emergence of the first Han settlements on the coast some 2,000 years ago, and until the economic boom of the past two decades, Hainan has always been seen as the poor relation of the Chinese empire. Widely neglected by successive dynasties, the island was called the "dragon's tail", a remote outpost of the empire where high officials were sent into exile.
While it played only a minor role in Chinese history, Hainan Island has been the homeland of the Li ethnic minority for over 2,000 years. Despised over time, the Li lived a primitive subsistence existence, generally in isolation. They lived this way as long as the Han remained confined to their small coastal communities. Groups of hunter-gatherers were still identified in the island's mountainous interior in the 1930s.
The weak Chinese presence in Hainan is unsurprising given that the island was essentially considered a place of banishment for most of the last millennium. When Li Deyu, Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty, was exiled there, he called it the "gate of hell". Its reputation was so bad that only 18 travelers ventured there of their own accord during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties (in nearly 700 years). Today, this number corresponds to the number of tourists arriving on the island per minute during peak season.
In Haikou, a small memorial honors Su Dongpo and Hai Rui, two other famous exiles. More recently, in the 1920s, the island hosted the first communist cell and was heavily bombed and then occupied by the Japanese during World War II. Li and Han guerrillas mounted fierce resistance against Japanese forces, but reprisals were violent and a third of the island's male population was executed. Despite their fight in communist ranks, the Li remain, along with a small Miao community, the poorest ethnic group in Hainan.
In 1988, the island was separated from Guangdong to become a province in its own right, granted the status of special economic zone (SEZ). It then rapidly transformed into a free agent of the deregulated market, operating outside the law. Hainan experienced frenetic, uncontrolled, and wild development, with everyone seeking to profit from the promised tourism boom. However, many developers were ahead of their time, and the coasts were long disfigured by unfinished tourist complexes.
Today, the mainland is reinvesting in the island, where one can again build, plant palm trees, and dig swimming pools at a frenzied pace.
Today
It took over 2,000 years for the Chinese to see Hainan Island as anything other than a "gate of hell" where disgraced dignitaries were relegated. The island has since recovered an excellent reputation, to the point where a stay in the "Chinese Hawaii" has become a sign of prestige.
Benefiting directly from Chinese economic growth, the country's smallest province now draws 80% of its revenue from tourism. And its visitors are not limited to middle-class Chinese in loudly patterned shirts. European travel agencies now offer dream stays in Hainan just as they do on the Costa del Sol. An increasing number of independent travelers find that a detour to China's best beaches wonderfully complements their discovery of this vast country.
In many ways, Hainan evokes the exoticism of Indochina more than the polluted air, glacial winters, and dense crowds of the mainland. For the traveler, it is one of the rare places where it is possible to encounter relaxed Chinese openly enjoying themselves.
Of course, the landscape is not limited to coconut palms and sunshine. The more intrepid can round out their stay with a little exploration of the mountains in the island's center, with moderate temperatures and thick forests dotted with Li and Miao villages. Prices are generally higher on Hainan Island, but very attractive discounts are offered for accommodation outside the winter high season.
Climate
Hainan is situated at China's extreme south. Sanya, in the south of the island, is approximately at the same latitude as Hawaii and Hanoi in Vietnam. It is therefore always warm, even when it freezes in the rest of China.
The most pleasant period is between November and early March, when temperatures hover around 21°C. These months are those of the winter high season and experience very high tourist influx on the island.
The average annual temperature stays around 25°C. Visitors are somewhat fewer from March–April to October–November, when heat and humidity can be stifling. Nevertheless, hotels offer very attractive promotions during this period, sometimes allowing for a luxurious stay for a fraction of the usual cost.
Typhoons sweep across Hainan at least once a year, generally between May and October. Even though the island is rarely at the heart of the storm, connections and communications with the mainland are often disrupted.
How to Get Around Hainan Island?
Getting around Hainan is both simple and inexpensive. Three main roads connect Haikou to Sanya: the eastern expressway via Wanning and the coast (only 3 hours by bus); the central route, much slower, via Qiongzhong and Wuzhishan; and the western expressway, less traveled, via Danzhou (or Nada), Basuo (Dongfang), and Yingehai.
Bus
The roads are excellent, bus connections are comfortable and departures are regular, but the vast majority of visitors head directly to Sanya thanks to a series of inexpensive domestic flights. Among travelers arriving via Haikou, most reach Sanya via the fast but boring eastern expressway. The central route, slow but far more interesting, crosses the mountains of the island's center, as well as the Li and Miao minority regions.
There are two types of buses: large pink buses, air-conditioned, very comfortable and with few stops, and green buses, non-air-conditioned, which stop regularly at slightly lower fares than the pink buses.
Train
Despite railway lines inherited from the Japanese era appearing on maps and a frequently mentioned project for railway lines circling the island, there are no useful connections on Hainan. However, a train does connect Haikou to Guangzhou.
Scooter
Few travelers rent cars on the island, but many choose to rent motorcycles or scooters for approximately 100 to 125 yuan per day to make excursions from Sanya.
Languages
There are more than a dozen Hainan Min dialects (which also goes by many other names), many of which are also spoken in Guangdong. Additionally, a large number of inhabitants speak Hakka, and while the Li and Miao know some Mandarin, they generally prefer to use their own languages.
What to Do in Hainan?
- Surf the long deserted beach of Shimei Bay.
- Enjoy delicious seafood and soak in the atmosphere of Sanya's Market No. 1.
- Relax in the idyllic setting of Yalong Bay and try the water sports on offer.
- Taste the four culinary specialties of Hainan.
- Wander the streets of Lingshui, one of Hainan's oldest villages, and discover archaeological remains of a trading port dating back to the Han dynasty.
