海南 Hainan

2024-04-09

海南, the Hawaii in China, was administered by 廣東省 until 2008 when it was promoted to 海南省 和海南經濟特區, 省会在北部的海口市. Sanya 三亚 in the southern part of the island and the surrounding coast had turned into tourist and real estates hot spots. Hainan was also a UNESCO site. Since 2001, China had been hosting an annual conference in nearby Boao 博鰲 chaired by the Chairman of China and other high officials. The Boao 博鰲 conference was participated by 28 Asian countries. To travel to 海南, Pat & Teresa took the high speed rail from Hong Kong 西铁 to 湛江 which used to be called 雷州半岛 in their high school days. 香港西铁 was located where the old 佐敦道汽車渡海輪 used to be. The 西铁 station was sandwiched between two new MTR stations Austin and West Kowloon built on the newly reclaimed 西九龍 West Kowloon land. The term 一地两檢 became meaningful because the 西铁 station was on China ground by definition. To board the train, Pat & Teresa had to show their 回鄉證, 香港身份證, 回鄉證, 回鄉證 in that order. Security was tight. There were hundreds cameras in the station. It took the high speed train 高铁 four hours to travel to 湛江 at the speed of 198km/124mph. From Hong Kong, the highspeed trian traversed 深圳北站, 廣州南站, 江門, 恩平, etc. with a 5-minute stop at each transiting station. The China rail system was very mature and impressive which dwarfed Pat's ten-year airlines experience. Each highspeed train was comprised of 18 cars. Together they could carry over 1,350 passengers boarding and disembarking almost all at the same time!! From the southern tip of 廣東湛江 they left the train and boarded a passenger ferry sailing across the strait to 海南海口市. The ferry carried passengers on the top decks while trucks, automobiles, and trains were on the lower decks. More about that later. Despite the claims, 海南 could not be compared with Hawaii though the beaches were nice. Sanya was located at 18 degree N latitude while Oaho is at 21 degrees N which could be a tad cooler. 海南 was 'green' which had the highest concentration of electric vehicle per capita in China and could go higher when the old gasoline based vehicles would be retired. On the day they arrived 海南, it was on 旧曆三月初三是海南黎族的“小清明”,亦是他們的情人節. 漢代以前有個很獨特的風俗，它同時是政府為男女青年舉辦的狂歡節. They witnessed a number of young people getting married on that special day. There were quite a number of fancy hotels in Hainan Many were built with a Disney-like theme They included conference centers; water sports; zoos; shopping malls; personal services; etc. similar to Macau or Las Vegas in the South Sea 中国的南沙群岛. Hainan had a lot of delicious street food One of the most famous one was 文昌鷄. It was said that "海南雞飯是把雞放進水中浸熟， 文昌雞則是隔水清蒸而成，所以文昌雞的口感較海南雞飯濕潤". This was a first in China to ship a train across the strait where an 18-car train ws split into sections of three to fit into the large ferry on rail. While all the passengers were on board, they 'cut-and-paste' the long train and pushed the various sections into the ferry which took a very long time. The ferry took more than 2 hours to cross the strait against the head wind but it also took a long time to reassemble the train once arrived on the other side. Since not all train cars or passengers were heading to the same destination. The logistic was amazing. It was a very interesting trip to Hainan.