The Best Beach Holiday in China

While all of my friends and fellow teachers made winter holiday plans to return to their home countries or travel around Southeast Asia, I had a more limited scope with which to make plans.  While fostering our beautiful daughter, a privilege we are certainly honored to have as so many families have to wait across oceans and years for their children, we (more specifically, she) must stay in China.

So with a limited range of locations and winter encroaching on large portions of the country, I was daydreaming of somewhere warm, relaxing, and stationary.  While it sounds "adventurous" to city-hop over a 2-month holiday, I learned from our last "big" trip to Beijing, Xi'an, and Yangshuo (a 14-day trip), that I physically cannot handle this much change and I end up sick and unable to enjoy my exotic location.

The great thing about teaching oral English is the chance to "pick" my students' brains about how to speak Chinese, the best places to eat, and the best places to visit! When I described my ultimate vacation retreat, I collected many recommendations for Sanya Bay, the southernmost point of Hainan Island, and therefore the warmest place in China in January and February.

We were not disappointed.  We arrived at the beginning of January with a 36-day booking for a furnished apartment.  From our 25th-floor balcony, we could see the South China Sea and enjoy the temperate ocean breezes anytime of the day.  With cool and moderate temperatures, we could enjoy the day with our balcony door open, relaxing and reading books, or we could venture out to the beach, a short 5-minute walk from our apartment, and bask in the sun.  The beaches were beautiful, with swaying palm trees, perfect for shading and hanging a hammock.  There were plenty of "fruit ladies" and other venturous entrepreneurs to keep you fed and hydrated without being too annoying.  The beachwear varied widely, especially with a large Russian tourist influence, so I wasn't too uncomfortable sporting my bikini, when I have been in other swimming places I've visited in China.   

While Hainan shares the "China haze" I have encountered in all places I've visited so far, it didn't damper the view of the sea just feet in front of me.  The downtown buildings in the distance were a little hazy by day, but their bright lights put on quite a show after dark.  The called us from across the bay to come check out the night scene.  

We enjoyed many evenings in downtown taking in local cuisine and also many "western" food options.  We tasted the most amazing Italian I have ever experienced at Marco Polo.  They were doing outside renovations while we were there so the menu was limited, but we make the 1-hour trek from our apartment 4 or 5 times in our month-long stay  to enjoy fresh-baked bread, the best lasagna I've ever tasted, amazing pizza with homemade pepperoni and the biggest mushrooms I've ever seen, and perfectly Italian cappuccinos to top off the evening!

Travel was fairly convenient and easy to understand.  We easily toured the area and never really got too lost.  As Chinese New Year approached, however, buses became more and more crowded, to the point that we didn't really travel by bus during our last week there (and the last week before New Year).  We were a short 4-Yuan bus ride from the airport which made arrival and return quite manageable and low stress.   

 
The most difficult part of our stay was communication.  Our Longhigh Apartments service desk was unable (so we thought at first) to speak English, so we spent a lot of time taking translated messages to them in hopes of receiving answers to our questions and requests.  The longer we stayed, the more we realized they were more than able to speak English, just very unwilling to do so.  During our first days, we had to ask several times to get someone to help us come set up the internet, as the DIY was not very self-explanatory.  We had no major problems with our apartment, though, with weekly cleaning and free daily breakfast.  And we improved our Chinese speaking more on this trip than during any other period of our current year in China. 

Each day, we enjoyed watching locals practice daily doing their lantern dances or commence with evening communal exercises in a long 100-person congo line.  We also watched Chinese gather at the beachfront parks in the evenings to do ballroom dancing, karaoke, and traditional Chinese dancing.  There were always people in the courtyard practicing tai chi in the early morning.  Sanya is definitely on my list of recommendations of China must-sees.  There are beautiful scenes, both natural and cultural.