Haikou, Hainan, China…a city of about 1.5 million, but only a small town in China terms.

We had a half-day stop here on our way to Hong Kong. When we docked, we found that the Chinese authorities required that we go through immigration and customs as we left the ship. We noticed that there were men in uniform with cameras everywhere taking pictures of us as we lined up. It would be easy to imagine that our picture is now on the wall in every post office in China… The young lady immigration officer who took our passports at her window looked them over very carefully, checked the photo against the person, clicked a few keys, read the video screen carefully, then handed back the passport all without a word – or a smile.

Haikou is a port city on the northern tip of the island of Hainan just off the south coast of China. It is a rather nondescript place with a lot of tall buildings, mostly government, and a lot of unfinished high-rises. The Chinese housing market is not is very good shape we are told. The real action on Hainan is on the south side of the island where all the beaches are. We are told that at the resort area of Sanbe, there are high-rises hotels, condos, and toney restaurants as Sanbe is the playground of China’s, Russia’s, and eastern Eurpoe’s wealthier class.

We took a half-day tour to one of the only real attractions in the area: the Volcanic Cluster National Geopark. Our guide/interpreter was Wen Yang (“Koko”). She was about 5’0” and 100 lbs. of pure energy.

She explained the significance of the Chinese New Year, including some of the symbology, and began referring to us as her “family” for the day. In fact, every time we would need to assemble, she would shout “Koko’s family needs to be HERE now!” She managed to herd cats with great efficiency… We are convinced that the trip could have been deadly boring if not for Koko. She even sang a few Chinese songs to us on the way back to the ship in a pure, high voice that was just delightful.

The Volcanic cluster Geopark is an area of about 20 extinct volcanos located about 20 miles outside of Haikou city proper. The tour description indicated that part of the tour route included walking up about 99 steps to get to the top of the crater and overlook. After we actually got there and made the climb, I had to wonder if Chinese math is any different from our western math. There were actually 342 steps – I counted every one. It started as a small joke and when I go to about 40 or 50, I said to Bonnie there has to be more than another 40 or 50 here. So I kept counting all the way to the top and reached 342. Good thing, because we didn’t have one more step in us at that point. The good news is that, unlike Borobudur where the steps were both high and low, uneven across, and made of stone, these steps were even and made of concrete or brick. Bonnie thought it might be because the Chinese have small feet and short legs…

Yours truly and better half at the entrance to the park. Notice from our smiles and sort of erect posture that this picture was before we began the climb to the top.

The view from the top of the crater looking back at Haikou.

Looking into the crater. Notice the people making their way along the rim toward the top. They are about halfway to where we were.

An example of the stairs we climbed.

The lookout from the top of the crater was spectacular, even though a sign at the top indicated the height was only about 650’ above sea level. The craters are so old that the rest of the island has receded and they are the highest point.

The best thing about this particular port stop is that yesterday and today is the Chinese New Year – “Gong Xi Fat Choi” to all our Chinese friends out there. Most everything except the small shops and restaurants shuts down for about a week so that families can get together and get out and enjoy the mild temperatures and celebrate by setting off fireworks and going to the temples to ask for good fortune in the coming year. By the way, this is the Year of the Goat.

We were fortunate enough to get to the Geopark early in the day before it really got crowded. You can see from the photos that even then you can’t get a picture without having someone in it. Speaking of pictures, many of the locals stopped to take our pictures and ask to have their picture taken with several of us. Seems to be a local or national custom. Charming!

Children of any nationality arte cute. Especially those under about the age of five or six. Chinese children seem especially so. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of children: children just standing there; children blowing bubbles; children posing unassumingly; children playing and flying kites. In all the time we were there and for all the children we saw, there was only one meltdown. A little boy apparently fell and skinned his knee and was inconsolable for about five minutes. The Chinese have a great emphasis on family and the families we saw were mostly multi-generational. Most families, however, had only one or two children and they are doted upon by all generations and relatives. This birth control policy is in keeping with recent Chinese policies regarding population control. More about government controls in a minute…

On the left, I think the Mom is as cute as the baby. She was so proud and happy that we wanted to take the baby's picture! The tyke on the right was so intent on blowing his bubbles that he paid no attention to us. In fact, I have a hole series of him walking down the sidewalk and just bubbling away.

This little girl was absolutely fascinated with the flowers. She smelled them, blew on them, talked to them, and tried to pick one before her Father called her away. I asked if I could take her picture and the Father stepped out of the way. The picture on the right was not one bit scripted. As soon as she saw that she was the focus of the camera. she struck that pose.

They start their gymnastics training early in China... The little girl on the right was trying very hard to get the ribbon off the ground and whirl, but it was about four times as long as she was tall. The two girls on the right were trying to see if they could make a game out of it and were oblivious to everyone around them.

We were fortunate to have made out scheduled tour in good time, even accounting for immigration control, traffic and crowds. The bus driver was going to get us back to the ship almost an hour early. Our guide/interpreter and the ship’s host accompanying us asked him to take us on a little scenic tour before returning to the ship. No go.

A shot of the incoming traffic at the Geopark. We were trying to get out!. It took us only about ten minutes on the entrance road coming in once we left the highway, but over half an hour on the way out. Traffic was three deep on one lane in and the bus towered over most everything else. By the way, the right side of the road just behind that blue sign is a sheer drop...

The tour route had been planned out and vetted by some anonymous government official and the bus driver could not (or would not) deviate from that route. We had noticed cameras along all the highways and our guide told us that all traffic is monitored and if the bus was not where it was supposed to be, the driver, the company, and the ship could get in trouble. After about a half-hour of phone calls and, I imagine, no little horse-trading, our guide got the driver to take us back to the ship by a different route through the city and we were able to stop at the Ever Green People’s Park (that’s not Evergreen, it is Ever Green, green being symbolic of prosperity and good luck we were told).

When we returned to the ship, we had to once again go through immigration and customs, the same passport routine – still no smiles.

We like China. China, at least as a tourist, is fascinating. Even a “small” city like Haikou gives one a flavor of things to come on the mainland. Although our next stop is Hong Kong which bears about as much resemblance to the rest of China as I do to Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise or [insert your favorite hunk of beefcake here…], we are planning to return to see more of China, perhaps as early as next year.

The people we met, immigration and customs aside, were quite warm and friendly. Granted we had little interaction with most of them, but Haikou is not one of the Far East’s great tourist destinations – at least not for westerners – and we were a novelty that was a treat for the locals.

Tomorrow we are in Hong Kong and we stay overnight. Stay tuned…