Hello everybody –  It would be okay for me if you call me “travel-Jenny”.Today, I want to report a bit about my experience in Hainan last weekend. I have been to three different cities in just three travel days. But for now, I will tell you a bit about Haikou and what I explored on my first day there.

I am currently travelling a lot through China; so I flew last weekend to Haikou at Hainan. It was the long weekend, where Chinese people celebrated Labour Day. When I first arrived at Haikou airport, it was already after 01:00 a.m. and I was not sure if there is still someone available in my Hostel (Banana Hostel J). I contacted them via email before, but as you might realize after some months in China, sometimes Chinese people ignore or just forget what you have told them. Finally, as I feared, the door to enter the hostel was closed when I arrived there late at night. After I frantically knocked on their door, I tried to gently shout. Fortunately, some minutes later two drunken but friendly boys came across and entered the hostel door so that I could step in. After entering, I tried to tell them my problem and another few minutes later (probably when they decided that they could trust me), I followed them to the second floor where a single room was open. Lucky for me, I did all the necessary things before, so immediately I fell dead-tired into the bed and got a good night’s sleep.

I didn’t really have an idea of what to do in Haikou when I woke up the next day; I just knew that I had a time frame until around 09:30 p.m as I needed to head out to the train station.

In almost every hostel in Banana-hostel they have a lot of information posted on the wall at the reception. After chatting a bit with the staff member there, I decided to drive to the volcano park. This was a very good decision. This Geo-park provides a number of volcanic culture information, garden area, special hand crafts and a bunch of locally flavored food. It is really interesting and a good place to visit. On the way with the bus to the area, you also pass the famous evergreen park in Haikou city.

While I went back on the last bus 04:00 p.m, it suddenly started to rain heavily. It was unbelievable – aquaplaning even in the main streets and while we drove over the Century Bridge, I saw a lot of cars stopping or vehicles close to leave the carriageway.

As I had no further ideas of what I could do, I have been not quite flexible in my sightseeing schedule, but also saved the time for doing something either inside or just enjoy a good dinner. When I got off the bus, a Chinese women gave me shelter under the sunshade of her stall.

After, the rain had stopped in the streets and the pedestrian paths looked like little lakes; my sandals where already totally wet. That’s why I didn’t care about walking around. The atmosphere was suddenly like everything was awakening after this doomsday mood. I really enjoyed the different hustle and bustle of the city and explored an open air fish market. The market itself was roofed, but has been flooded by the rain as well. The fish sellers escaped to the street at the river to sell big and delicious looking pieces of fish.

After my first nice day in Haikou at Hainan, I took the train to Sanya, without a booked hostel/hotel yet. But more about this story and the continuation of my trip. You can read it in my next blog …

Travelling in China can be so easy but also adventurous: Just ask me or other members of our InternChina-team for advise! It is inexpensive and easy to get around here!

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