We arrived in Hainan full of holiday spirit and ready to explore the area. It was after dark but we ventured outside the confines of our hotel resort in the direction of the beach, only to be met by aggressive 'drivers' keen to ferry us God-knows-where in exchange for 1 Yuan (about 10c).
A woman driving a motorbike-with-sidecar contraption screeched to a halt in front of us shouting 'yi kuai, yi kuai' (1 Yuan). As she pulled in, her two accomplices jumped out of the sidecar, ostensibly to make room for us but serving to make us a little uneasy.
Failing to shake them off our tail, and reluctant to venture into the dark isolation of the secluded seafront, we retreated to the safety of our hotel.
Back in the room, after dining in the hotel restaurant, we notice a sign on the door which reads:
"The Public Safety Bureau [police] has warned that there are lots of of bag-snatch, robbery, muggings in Sanya Bay. Please be careful."
'Lots of' them? I love when the police think warning people about these things is helpful. Could they not just police a bit better?
As it turned out, we had no further trouble but we didn't venture very far beyond the resort and never ate outside the hotel (primarily due to the lack of dining options).
The island is very much under construction and will probably be entirely different in five years' time.
However, Hainan is an island of 6 million people experiencing a rapid property boom - apparently that doesn't always go well in the long term...(ask Ireland)
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