American living in Hainan Dongfang

     First of all, Hainan DongFang is an oxymoron, Dongfang means eastern but is on the west coast of Hianan Island.

     My Chinese wife and I first visited Hainan Sanya in the spring of 2012. It was a beautiful city to visit but being retired and from a small town from American to populated and busy for me to reside.

     I told my wife we should revisit Hainan and find a less populated area. My wife had a childhood school friend, who has been living in Dongfang for many years, so we decided to visit. 2013 February, we were in Dongfang for less than a week, and started to look for an apartment to purchase. It took about a week and we moved into a 77 square meter 2 bedroom apartment. Minutes from the sea!

WHY HAINAN DONGFANG ? more laid-back than any other city in China I've visited. can get about anywhere you need to by bicycle. It's a the west coast of Hainan Island. When hurricanes strike  they come from the east and the Island mountains take most of winds out of the storm.

     The summers are hot but bearable. We only use the air-conditioner from mid-May to mid-June. The hottest it was past summer was 35, while mainland China was as high as 40!

     The coldest I've seen it, in the winter, mid-Dec. to mid-Feb., is 13 at night but as soon as the sun rises, the temp rises about 2 degrees an hour till early afternoon. Seafood fishing is one of the cities largest sources of income, if not the largest. You can go to the Harbor Fisherman's Pier very afternoon and purchase fresh seafood. Sandy beach north of the harbor longer than the eye can see. Homes in Dongfang are about 1/3 the cost of China's on the average.

     WHY NOT HAINAN DONGFANG  For me, why not!

Side-note: I spend about 12% of my retirement income to live in Dongfang and live good. In America, I would be living well below the poverty level!