Sanya Yalong bay - Hawaii of China.

Sanya has the most beautiful beaches in China. The one I have been to is Yalong bay, very near Sheraton Hotel, "the official resort of Miss World" for 3 consecutive years. The tour guide told us that in the month of December, has the most visitors and also the beauties of Miss World arrive here to join the contest. So guys, if you wanan see international beauties, you know which month to go, also to enjoy the sun and sea.

I have to admit the beach water is so very crystal-clear and unpolluted sea. It's been a long time i haven't seen such sea color - turqoise, especially at a popular beach. I do hope in few years time, the condition still remain the same. Maybe in future more tourist wanan explore Sanya, it will bcome so popular everyone will come here for vacation since Air Asia flies to Hainan.

So fortunate that we get to see the sudden "performance" of the flying fishes near the beach. They all flew up above the water all together and drop into the water, create an "applause-like" sound. Amazing!!! They are probably hundres of flying fish in the water, you can see it clearly above the bridge where we walk over to take the boat to the outer sea. The size of the fish is kinda like garupa size.

The boat we sat took us to the middle of sea and drop us to a larger boat which which you get to go down the deck to sit and look outside the glass window to see the fishes. So the deck is under the sea surface, I was feeling nausea when the boat jst left hanging on the sea. It was kind of disappointing as we expect to see more variety of fishes.

Nanshan temple in Sanya, Hainan

2nd day in Sanya, rains. I love the rain, it was so very hot in Haikou few days before. At least it cools down a little. Today our next destination is to visit Nanshan Temple. These are some pictures took on the way up to the temple. Very picturesque landscape.

If you travel to Sanya, you wont wanan miss this temple - 南山寺 Nanshan Temple(south mountain). It is a huge area, consist of several temples and a vegetarian restaurant, and the infamous Golden-Jade Kwan Yin statue on the sea. It overlooks the vast South China Sea.

Another highlight is the "long live stone". There's a chinese proverb we used to say "福如东海长流水，寿比南山不老松". Direct translation - "Blessings as boundless as the West Sea; Longevity as enduring as the Southern Mountains". In fact in Nan shan, there are many old people who lives more than 100 yrs old there. Perhaps the weather, food and water are one of the factor for their longevity.

Breakfast in Sanya, Hainan

2 days staying Guoxi Hotel (果喜大酒店), Sanya. This is our breakfast on the 1st day. They have fried kuey teow, steam corn and sweet potato, and the yellow transparent kuih is 马碲糕 (ma tai gou). The fried kuey teow and kuih are my favourite.

Ohh we had this for dinner. It's call the Fruit Feast (水果宴)!! Why they called it fruit feast? Oh remember the name of the hotel also has a chinese word "果" in it. Moreover, this fruit feast is one of their speciality dish in their restaurant.

One of the lunch we had vegetarian food in Nanshan Temple 南山寺. I would say this is one of the best vegetarian food which I've ever had.

Breakfast and lunch at Hotel Haikou, Haikou

During our stay in Hotel Haikou, we will gather at 椰风堂海南菜馆 (Ye Feng Tang Restaurant) on the 2nd floor for breakfast. Oh, the breakfast is not included in our hotel. The dimsum here is yum yummie. We've ordered alot of it, this is the advantage if you travelling with more people, then you get to taste different food. :)

This is my favourite since I've came here. Fish stomach!!! *droolszzz*

brinjal with something on it. haha i cant remember this.

This in chinese is call "Yu Peu"..Anyone knows the english name for it?

Oh! This is something new to me, never seen a bao is similiar to a mooncake. Yam and egg yolk, ooo i love egg yolks!

Purple bao.......what's inside??

Tadaaa!!!! Yam flavour.

Xiao Long bao. The size is bigger than the ones I've had in Malaysia. The fillings are full with pork meat and the skin is thin and not overly thick. Tasty! Funy thing is they don't offer us spoons, they expect us to put all-at-one-go in our mouth??!! At last my this little plate ended up with left over soup drip out from this bao.

This dimsum cost not more than 70rm. It's quite cheap judging from the food we order is quite alot.

Lunch time, me and my mom and grand aunt dine in another restaurant located at 1st floor. This beef with rice on lotus leaf, look at the amount of beef, huge portion too!! A little salty for me. I love this fried crispy pumpkin, something new again!! Sweet and tasty! :)) We love this so much. My grand aunt "ta pao" 2 dozens for our relatives and the kids. I only tasted 3 only... sob..

I feel that eating in Hainan, the food is reasonably cheap sually is quite up to taste and appetizing. MSG level average, not too much.

Tian Tian Seafood Restaurant 天天渔港, Haikou.

Dinner at Tian Tian seafood restaurant. This restaurant is huge, there's an outdoor seating (more seats) and indoor seating. Inside the restaurant, near the entrance, you could choose the seafood which you like them to cook. You can even find crocodile (below pic) meat here!! One of the famous seafood is xiangba mussel 象拔蚌, very huge mussel.


Our first dish arrived on the table - soft shell crab. Not too oily. Not much difference from ours.


Next is one of my favourite - Hainan rice noodle. It is cooked with peanuts and some eggs, veges, soya sauce with a little sour hint. Love this. I wonder where to find this dish in Malaysia.

This is the xiangba mussel cook with vege. Smooth texture and delicous!

Definitely a MUST TRY this tasty porridge with some xiangba mussel and fish stomach.

Kailan with ice on it, this is something odd to me. The kailan is boiled and easy to chew on, but is icy. You suppose to dip the kailan with wasabi served with the dish. After dipping the wasabi, its spicy taste. I don't favour this dish. Weird taste.

Crispy duck, quite tasty but very oily.

I love this dish, pork, cant remember which part of it. Very delicious and "unhealthy". haha

Oh I don't like the smell of this - small mussels cook with bamboo shoots. The smell is so strong, it stinks like the ones I have eaten in some chinese restaurants in London.

Forgot the name of the soup, it has very small baby mushrooms in it. Sorry..cant remember what is in the soup. :(



海口市东沙路（坡博市场后面）
电话：0898-66539968

Fu Le Restaurant, Haikou

First day lunch was at Fu Le Restaurant, located just at the next lane on the left side of our hotel. Our tour guide recommended us to try the (文昌鸡) Wen Chang Chicken at this restaurant, according to him it's the famous chicken here. This type of chicken need to rare for 8 to 9 mths and feed them the specialty products of Hainan such as Hainan Ye Si (shredded coconut), peanut bran, rice bran, such as rice balls, hence the chicken taste different and whiter meat.

First dish, we orded the infamous Wen Chang one whole chicken. As you can see, the chicken head is present! Also with my favourite blood, chicken blood. haha I have eaten some pork blood, but chicken blood is my first time. We dig our chopsticks into the chicken meat and get the taste of it. Ah! It was cold, not even warm! We're not sure whether they serve the chicken this way. The meat was kinda hard for us. Now I remembered we were suppose to eat and dip the meat into a sauce which has lime and garlic juice. Still mayb the taste is different but we are not used to eating cold, hard meat and it was bloody as well. I was checking the customers sitting at the next table around the restaurant, no hints of complaining of their chicken dish. It was full house in this restaurant. So conclusion, we are not used to their cooking on this chicken dish then. :)

This is fried clear noodle with bitter gourd. This is tasty.

This is ye chai. It looks similar as one of the vege dish from Sabah. My first time eating this, nice and start to loving it.

Claypot brinjals with salted fish. This dish a little too salty for me.

If anyone visit Hainan, must try Qingdao beer. Its the local famous beer.

My recent Hainan trip.

Hainan island, in chinese (Hainan Dao), located at the southest part of China. It's is my dearest mom's and grand-aunt birth place. This trip is organised by my uncle. We have 8 adults and 5 kids going on board to Hainan. My first time travel with such a big group of relatives and friends. It was a good experience.

We board with Air Asia plane to Haikou airport, suprised to find that the airport is quite small. Took a airport bus to Haikou Hotel to check-in. This is a 3 star business hotel, which locate inside the shopping centre at the heart of the city. Their lobby is locate on 2nd floor, check out the ceiling, decorate with bamboo sheets. Our hotel room beds is very comfy, with good mattress!! Clean toilet with no bath tubs but shower room. I'm pleased.


This is the view from our hotel balcony. Notice there's a garden lake on the opposite side.





There are many shops and malls along the hotel. Very convenient way to shop around, but the weather was horribly hot and walking under the sun makes you sweat like a pig. I saw everyone carrying an umbrella under the hot sun, hence i bought one too. End up each of us has one, the umbrellas here are very colorful with floral print.

First 3 days, we stayed and tour Haikou, which is the capital of Hainan. Haikou city and buildings and roads are like bangkok. No big, widen roads can be seen here on city centre and no bumpy roads. :) You only see bumpy roads when you visit the outskirt or village area. Their highways are wide. Siting in a taxi here would be quite "exciting", as the drivers drive from one lane to the opposite lane. It's madness, but here is better than Hanoi taxi drivers.

Along the hotel, it has many shop lots selling apparels. Most of shops has sales, probably Olympic season. I bought a skirt for 20rmb, and a blouse for 10rmb. Very cheap indeed after discounts. We went to this small complex call 第一 场 (Di Yi Guang Chang) to buy some cloth. This complex has 2 floors. first floor sells mostly curtains, and second floor - cloths. After we bought the cloth, we took it to tailor made. There's a row of tailors and fabric shop next to the complex. Along the shops, it looks like 新街 (San Kai) or some old streets in Penang. I did a Cheongsam dress for myself, the cost of the cloth and tailor made only cost not more than 100rm!! Is very cheap!! :)) I would recommend anyone who visit China, should get your clothes tailor made.





If you stroll along the street before reaching Di Yi Guang Chang, you will see alot of shops selling kitchenwares, stationaries, chinese festive accessories, herbs and tea, chinese musical instruments and even pets!! Over here, you can bargain the price if you by more.

There are too many malls along the main road!! We don't have time to walk this street call Jie Fang Xi Lu. When we took a taxi, we past one of the lane where a stretch of shoe shops!! Which makes our eyes pop! We're just too tired to shop anymore. I guess Haikou is a shopping city too!