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Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Hawaii of China...Sanya

For our recent honeymoon trip, we decided to go to Sanya...a beach city in China's southernmost island province, Hainan.

It actually sees most of its tourism during the winter months when people look to escape the cold (and have long Spring Festival breaks from work/school). When we went it was the rainy season, but in spite of seeing some rain nearly everyday, it wasn't too heavy and would stop and leave plenty of time for sunshine, warmth, and sunbathing. Also, I liked that it wasn't too crowded.
While the claim that it is like Hawaii might be stretching it, it was lovely, and for China, clean.
We stayed in a Honeymoon suite at the TianFuYuan Resort, and got a really good bargain on that because it's the off season.
(view from our room...the resort was older but had a nice pool, and you can see the ocean!)

If you are thinking of visiting Sanya, here are a few tips:
-at your hotel, ask for a room above the 4th floor...always a better view of the sea
-you can take the little buggy taxis around for cheap...always bargain and ask for a few kuai cheaper than what they tell you, but they won't rip you off too bad.
-DON'T go to the seafood restaurants that they recommend (because they get a commission). Our experience with that was that it was RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, and not really good. We ended up eating street food seafood, and it was fabulous, and only a third of the cost for a really filling, delicious bunch of dishes.
(delicious roast fish)

-If you want to go scuba diving (which was cool, although not spectacular, and definitely a beginners outing), ask a buggy driver...they have connections that you can bargain them down to 280 for the whole excursion, whereas going directly to the dive place will cost you upwards of 550...and is definitely not worth that much.
-eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies! The huge, fresh mangos are to die for, and coconuts are so fresh and good!
(the best mango I have ever eaten, bought off a fruit lady at the beach)

Interestingly, most of the foreigners that visit Sanya are Russian, so if there is a second language in Sanya, it's Russian, not English. Also, the Mandarin spoken there is kind of hard to understand...the accent somewhat resembles a cross between a Taiwanese accent and a Cantonese speaker pronouncing Mandarin poorly. They will often leave the "r" off of words like "shi" or "chi". Even my husband had difficulty understanding them, and the local language is indecipherable. Sounds somewhat like a cross between Thai/Cantonese?

Also, if you are an expat that resides in a part of China with very few Westerners/Western food, you can enjoy some international cuisine...there is a great Thai restaurant, and a good Italian one as well!

Anyways, it was a wonderful vacation, and coming from the northernmost part of China to the southernmost was so enjoyable...the climate was wonderful...my dry hair and sick lungs didn't want to leave!



 
 


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