Christmas in Sanya


XMAS IN SANYA

Merry Christmas everyone! I enjoyed my holiday in the South China sea island of Hainan. This town is called Sanya and is considered the Hawaii of the far east. The weather here is in the 70’s and sunny. I did have a few days of cloudy skies, but it is still warm. The sea is cool but you can swim. Beautiful beaches and good food abounds.
I stayed at two different resorts. The Catus Resort and the Sanya Shanhaitian Hotel are 5 start resorts. There is a lot to see around the island, although I opted for a relaxed venue and enjoyed going to the beach and eating. I guess things are expensive for Chinese standards, but still reasonable considering. They just had the Miss World competition here on Dec 10th. All in all I think the Hawaii refrence is over rated, but still this is a very nice place to visit. Many things come form this island. They grow coffee, pepper (table), cocoa, coconuts, rubber seem to be the main exports from here.
Walking down the beach, I was confronted by a Chinese military dude with a big dog. He seemed nervous and excited as he told me to turn around and go back. Apparently this part of the beach was “military” and I was not welcome there. I later found out this was where the US fighter plane was damaged and forced to land last year by the mid air collision with a Chinese fighter plane.
You can see some of my pictures from here to get an idea of Sanya. THe Chinese love their fireworks and I was surprised to be able to buy 8″ shells to launch form the beach! They cost about $4.50 each. I just watched as a barrage of these shells were launched all night Christmas eve. I can’t believe you can play with this stuff.
The Chinese go on the beach wearing suits and ties. SOme actually wear bathing suits and swim, but most try to stay out of the sun and just walk around. It is funny to see them in suits and barefoot walking around.