Hainan--A Great Place to Live

Life in a small town in South China is never dull. From the friendly smiles of the people you pass in the street to the plodding water buffalo harnessed to farm carts, there is an air of life and a feeling of being alive that I have not found in my home in Canada. Perhaps it’s the fact that in Hainan, where I have spent part of the past two and a half years teaching school, the population tends to live, love, argue, and make up in the streets. Everyone lives outdoors, and considering the climate on this tropical island, it’s not a bad idea.

I am not sure why I chose Hainan for my debut teaching, but I have never regretted it. Most of you have probably never heard of it, except perhaps as the site of an aerial encounter between the US and Chinese Air Forces a few years ago, which ended in the destruction of a Chinese fighter plane and the subsequent internment of several US airman on Hainan. The island is more well-known by the occasional Russian who goes there for a winter holiday than by the average western holiday-seeker. Boasting an average temperature of 24 degrees and wonderful beaches and swimming, it is fast becoming a location for frigid Beijingers to use as a holiday “destination”. There are not a lot of other nationalities represented on the island, and in fact I can almost count on my fingers and toes the number of foreign visitors I have seen there in since I arrived.

Hainan Island is the little blip that you see off the south coast of China. In area it is about the same size as Vancouver Island, although it is shaped more like an apple rather than a banana like our island. The population is about 8 million people, of which a great number belong to the minority groups of Li and Miao people. Haikou, the capital city has a population of about a million people, although with a floating workforce of about 200,000 it is always difficult to judge in China. It is a bustling Chinese city, considered small by Chinese standards, although as you gaze out at the street life it certainly seems very large by our standards. Haikou is the commercial capitol of the island and most of the government offices are located there. The population is composed of mostly Han Chinese many from the mainland, and there seem to be construction cranes in every point of the compass. This incidentally is true in every city in China.

Almost of the tourists head south for three hours on the expressway to the resort of Sanya. For most of its existence this was know as the end of the world, and was the location to which the Middle Kingdom exiled its troublemakers as there was no place farther removed from the capital. Nowadays it is the location of the most developed resorts on the island. There are beaches and palm trees all around the periphery of Hainan but Yalong Bay is something special. The water is crystal clear, the sand is warm and silky, and the seafood is fresh and delicious. You can see why pictures of this idyllic setting go over so well in -20 degree Beijing!

My favorite part of Hainan however is in the centre, near Wuzhishan or “Five-Finger Mountain”. I taught at a University there and found the people, community, climate and surroundings extremely comfortable. The city, the smallest in China, is located high in the central mountains, and is composes of about 60% ethnic Li people, who live in boat-shaped houses in the mountains scattered around the city. Many of the traditional holidays and feasts are commemorated by the people of the central region, and tourists are always welcome, especially if you take the time to learn a little of the local dialect.

Just as BC is looking forward confidently to the 2010 Olympics the Chinese people, even at the “ends of the earth” are preparing to greet visitors from any lands in 2008. I sincerely hope that some of the visitors manage to make to this little corner of China, well-removed from the hustle and bustle of the big cities.