When thinking of China, one normally doesn't picture a tropical island - and with good reason. Chinese poets write about misty mountains and flowing rivers; fashionable women detest getting tan. When thinking of midterm exams, one also doesn't tend to picture teachers on vacation just because they aren't local. However, the second October I was in China, both of these seemingly improbable situations collided to form reality. When most of our students didn't have class because they were taking tests, Melody and I (not having to proctor because we're foreign) managed to switch our few remaining lessons with the music teacher and took off to the island paradise of Sanya, Hainan.
Getting there was a bit of a struggle, with one of the few train delays I ever experienced in China, plus a connection during which we accidentally ordered pigs' ears before we liked them (since then, both our tastes and our Chinese skills have improved). However, we were treated to the entertaining spectacle of a loose cow doing his business right in front of the public restrooms without the slightest qualm. Then, once we arrived, it was one of the most relaxing vacations I ever had abroad - and blissfully uncrowded, since it wasn't a Chinese holiday.
Mostly, we perched on the beach. Each full day, we rented little tiki-hut umbrellas on the white sand, complete with wooden lounge chairs, me drinking watery milk out of giant green coconuts the size of my head. We took in the scenery of the sapphire blue bay, framed by distant mountains. There was sun and sky and a small dotting of painted clouds. We watched Russian tourists fight with seagulls, a beginning SCUBA class venturing in the water, and vendors of random trinkets like those sold at Indian River Fruit stands in Florida hawking their wares. I read And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. Occasionally we dipped in the water to swim, and one day we took a walk along the second bay's boardwalk until we could go no further, as the planks had been washed away by a particularly aggressive wave. One of the best treats was an evening xi jiao with a view of the water.
Sanya is expensive - it's really the only place in China (for now) where one might find Don Caesar-like accommodations. We stayed in the small but adorable Captain's Hostel, the only cheap place within a five-minute walk from the beach. The seafood on the shoreline is comparable to a Boston restaurant. Once - just once - we splurged on a whole fish that we picked out of the tank, and we picked his bones clean with our chopsticks. (He was tasty. We think he was a red snapper. ) It should be noted that that particular night was Halloween, and we wore costumes - adding much to the curiosity of other restaurant patrons.
China is a land of surprises and contrasts, and Sanya was no exception. It's the place to consider for tourists who have had their fill of misty mountains plaited with stairs.
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