Hainan Island:
China's largest island is also its smallest province,and an equally small population gives the place a much less hectic feel.
Hainan Dao (Hainan Island) tempts with all the trappings of a tropical idyll and the central highlands,with their thick canopies of forest,offer superb - if challenging - hiking.Listen not to those who grouse about tour groups crowding their stretch of beach:there's much that's unexplored here.
Hainan's climate is far more temperate than the rest of China.Even in winter,average temperatures of 21°C (69.8°F) prevail; the yearly average is 25.4°C (77.7°F).From as early as March through November,the weather becomes hot and humid.Typhoons usually descend on the island between May and October,and can cripple all transport and communication with the mainland.
Sanya Wan (Sanya Beach).This beach is well known to anyone who has handled modern Chinese currency,as it is the landscape rendered on the Two Yuan bill.There is a large rendering of a 2 Yuan bill at the entrance to the beach where many lovers go to be photographed.This beach was also the landing point for exiled officials to the island and there are two large boulders marked with characters referencing the fact that they were being sent "to where the water meets the sky."
Nan Shan (South Mountain).This is a large Shaolin Buddhist temple complex along the southernmost point of the island.There is a saying in Chinese culture - "May your life be as long as the South Mountain," and it refers to this very place.Many tours on the island are exclusively in the local dialect,called Hainanese,so you may want to enlist your own interpreter to come along with you.Located off shore from the complex is a giant statue of Buddha (being erected as of 2004) which was to be the largest in the world.Within the complex there are many temples and daily demonstrations of martial arts by the Shaolin monks.The restaurant within the complex is all vegetarian.