Travel Notes | Hainan Island Tour

One of my big wishes for going to Sanya this time is to walk around the island and see the scenery around Hainan Island. But because zj couldn't leave because of his work, we couldn't start the "around the island" trip until the fifth day. Although Hainan Island is not big, with only two and a half days, the places we can go are still very limited. So we decided to abandon the western route and only go to Boao, Wenchang, Haikou, Danzhou, and then return to Haikou from Danzhou on the same day. It was equivalent to walking most of Hainan Island. As for the central mountainous area, we could only silently tell ourselves that it was not good-looking...

On the morning of the fifth day, I made an appointment with a local outdoor person to go diving in Dadonghai. Compared with Wuzhizhou, the marine protection here is worse. There are many fish, but the types of corals are average. So if you can’t go abroad and want to dive, you should go to the coral reefs and barrier reefs in Wuzhizhou. It’s definitely worth double the price.

After lunch, we finally got on the expressway from Sanya and started our semi-circular island tour. Today’s goal is to arrive in Wenchang and stay there. "Have you checked where to go in the middle?" zj asked me, "I'm not sure. I looked at the guide twice. If I don't want to study it, just look at the scenery on the road." Well, if you don't expect it, you won't be disappointed. Let fate surprise you. me! Because time was tight, we decided to take a short walk on the highway first. During the high-speed driving from Sanya to Wanning, it rained heavily, the visibility was only 20 meters, and the road was full of cars with double flashers. After passing Wanning, the rain stopped, so we got off the highway and continued on along the national and provincial highways. Along the way there are palm trees, areca trees, coconut trees, and villages. Finally, I arrived at the Hainan countryside I was most looking forward to! Search while driving and stop whenever you encounter a nice place.

Strolling along the roadside (it’s actually been raining lightly)

Boao - hunting for exotic cereals and grains

On the way to Wenchang, you will pass through Boao. Qionghai City, where Boao is located, eats delicious whole grains, which surprised me. As an island, the output of whole grains should be very limited. So what are the cereals and grains in Hainan? So we stopped by the Boao cereal store recommended by LP.

There were only two uncles eating sesame balls in the store. I asked the proprietress what was available, and it took me a long time to understand. It turned out that the varieties here are different at different times. Hainanese snacks such as rice noodle soup are only available in the morning, and in the afternoon they are all fried food: corn tortillas, corn sesame balls, and sorghum rolls. , chicken dung, rattan rice cakes, etc. - these are the so-called whole grains in Hainan. Chicken shit vine is a Hainanese vine. I tried it once. No matter the texture or taste, and the name, I couldn't take a second bite, so I ordered sesame balls and sorghum rolls. Both snacks are stuffed with shredded coconut, which is sweet and delicious, but if you eat too much fried food, you will get tired of it. After eating this, I went next door to eat mango rice rolls. As a "heretic" in the rice roll industry, mango rice rolls have a smooth and tender skin, and the mangoes are fresh and sweet.

Sesame balls, sorghum rolls, mango rice rolls

 

Wenchang - An unexpected surprise in Coconut Township

When it comes to Wenchang, I can only think of two things, one is the satellite launch center, and the other is Wenchang Chicken. But the most interesting place along the way is undoubtedly Wenchang, which was a complete surprise.

After eating snacks in Boao, we set off and continued on our way. It was already past 5 o'clock and we were still more than an hour's drive from Wenchang. We originally planned to go straight to Wenchang City to stay, but when I was browsing the guide, I found that there is a Coconut Chicken in the Dongjiao Coconut Grove of Wenchang that is very good, so I happily decided to change our route and go to the Coconut Chicken in the Dongjiao Town of Wenchang first.

After the car drove into Dongjiao Town, Wenchang, it was getting dark, and we entered a coconut grove avenue. After walking for a long time, we drove into the village and saw the lights. There are many farmhouses on the road, but because it is the off-season, there is little business. We finally found "Ruifeng Coconut Chicken", it was already 7:30. There were a few tables set up in the courtyard, but there were no other customers. It was indeed the off-season.

We sat down and ordered a coconut chicken straight away. The chicken here is killed first and cooked fresh, so you have to cook it for a while. The proprietress is a very capable middle-aged woman in her thirties, who is very enthusiastic. She called home and asked for a slaughtered chicken to be delivered, and at the same time brought us a plate of local red dragon fruit. Dragon fruit is very small but very sweet. Twenty minutes later, the chicken was killed and coconut soup was served. When eating coconut chicken in Shenzhen, the soup is pure coconut water clear soup, but the one served here is indeed milky white. The lady boss said that this is coconut milk made from coconut meat and coconut water. There is nothing else added except a few small dates in it. Then he brought his own ingredients. "Cook for ten minutes. If you are afraid of old age, you can cook for a little longer."

After the coconut soup is boiled, add the chicken pieces. After 7 or 8 minutes, there will be no more blood and you can eat it. I filled a bowl of soup first and took a sip. It was so delicious. If it is cooked in coconut water, the taste is usually bland; but unlike coconut milk, the cooked chicken is delicious without seasoning. The chicken gets the mellowness of the coconut milk, and the coconut milk gets the freshness of the chicken. I ate four or five bowls of it, including soup and meat. The boss lady's secret recipe is also delicious, much better than the strange taste of ginger soy sauce in restaurants. ZJ, who had been questioning whether he could still eat dinner after eating too many grains, couldn't stop eating, saying that the two-hour journey was worth it.

I asked the proprietress, "Why is the Wenchang chicken I eat in other places so hard, but this one is chewy and not woody? What is so special about Wenchang chicken?" The proprietress said proudly, Wenchang chicken must not only use cooked feed For feeding, coconut meat can also be grated into shreds and used to feed chickens. Wenchang produces coconuts, so this feeding method is not available elsewhere in Hainan. "It turns out that coconuts can be fed to chickens!" "Of course, coconuts are full of treasures. The coconut shells are used to make coconut palm mattresses, the aged inner shells can be used to make carving crafts, and the coconut meat is fed to chickens. So the coconuts you drink are thrown on the road There will be people picking it up everywhere. "It's so easy to rely on someone to support you!" One-third of the coconuts produced in Hainan come from Wenchang. It is said that Dongjiao Town is called the hometown of coconuts. "However, in the past few years, the sea water pollution in Wenchang has been too serious due to the development of Wenchang. The coconut groves have degraded and the scenery is not as beautiful as before. When I first married in Wenchang, I tied a hammock to a coconut tree in the summer and lay on it listening to the sound of the waves. , that’s comfortable.”

Sure enough, I saw a chicken eating coconut the next day.

After listening to the boss lady’s introduction, we immediately decided not to go to Wenchang City. We just found a place to stay in the coconut grove in the eastern suburbs and got up early the next day to see the coconut grove.

The next day, we originally planned to go to Dongjiao Coconut Grove Park to have a look, but we found it. Then I thought, the coconut grove avenue along the way here must be more beautiful than the man-made park, so I might as well just walk along the road I came from yesterday. I believe that there are coconut groves everywhere in Dongjiao Town and there are scenery everywhere. Driving in the dense coconut grove, passing through the village roads with almost no people, there are banana trees and papaya trees along the way. The eyes are full of high and low green. It is really refreshing and refreshing.

Papaya on the roadside

Engage in some picking activities

I just want to jump in the woods

Just stop and go, stop and take photos when I encounter a beautiful place. I really can't get enough of the coconut grove. I spent 6 yuan on the roadside and bought a red coconut weighing almost ten kilograms. It was rich in juice and absolutely sweet...

My arm strength is not good. I feel tired after lifting a big coconut for a while.

At 11 o'clock, we arrived at Universal Pier. This is a seafood market. Fishermen go to sea early in the morning and come back to sell it here. Walking in from the outside, there are small restaurants all along the way that process supplied materials. Although Global Pier has a grand name, it is actually very small, but it has many things, fresh and cheap. There are fishing boats parked on both sides of the pier, all of which came back from fishing early in the morning.

The guy sorting out the fishing nets

Collect the ship and dock it

We bought a five-pound emperor snail. But if you want to get the snail shell, you must first get the meat. An aunt saw us holding the big snails, so she came over and asked if we wanted to process the snails, so we followed her to the restaurant where she processed the snails. She asked the chef to fry the snail meat and green onions, leaving the snail shell intact. The chef at the seafood restaurant said that for such an old snail, it would taste better if cut into several slices and stewed in chicken soup!

Traveling without setting specific goals brought many unexpected gains during the trip to Wenchang. Although it only lasted one night and one morning, it was the place that left the deepest impression on me during this trip. I hope that the coconut grove will always be lush and no longer be damaged, and the tranquility there will not be disturbed.

Haikou - looking for delicious food

When we came to Mr. Bin’s place, we had Hainan Dongyang goat for lunch and drank freshly squeezed coconut milk. After having enough wine and food, the three of us went to Qilou Old Street. Like Guangdong, old cities such as Haikou and Wenchang have retained some Nanyang-style buildings, which are worth visiting.

After walking to eat in the old street, we went to Dengji. I’ve had Qingpu Liang many times, but Haikou Dengji’s really beats the rest. Whether it is coconut milk pure cold or coconut milk pure cold, both are particularly fresh, the ingredients are solid, and the taste is rich, which is truly worthy of its reputation.

After finishing the dessert, we looked for a noodle shop again. There are many types of noodles in Hainan. In addition to the famous Baoluo noodles, Lingshui sour noodles, Lingao noodle soup, etc. are also common. We found a roadside shop called Yamei Hainan Noodles and ordered a bowl of soup noodles and a bowl of pickled noodles. The ingredients in the noodles are really rich, which subverts my view that "you can never be full after eating noodles"...

Coconut milk pure cold, coconut milk pure cool, pickled powder, soup powder

Lingao - Escape to the ends of the earth

On the last day, we set off from Haikou and went to Danzhou to see the salt fields, passing by Lingao along the way. Lingaojiao is where the People's Liberation Army landed to liberate Taiwan. There is a lighthouse built by the French a hundred years ago. The lighthouse was very disappointing (it is only 20 meters away and not on the seaside), but it unexpectedly gave me the sea view of Lingaojiao.

A park was built here in Lingaojiao, which can be regarded as a revolutionary education base, but it is really not famous. There are no signboards along the way. Moreover, because various real estates are being built next to the park, there are no decent roads. We knocked on the chassis countless times at the construction site before we found the entrance to the park. There was no ticket and no one was watching.

It was almost noon when we arrived, and soon I started sweating all over my body, and even my hands and arms quickly started to break out in sweat rash. But with the beautiful scenery in front of me, I couldn’t care less. The sea in Lingaojiao is very blue. Although it is not as clear as Wuzhizhou, it is better than the vastness and silence. As long as you don’t look back (you will see the sea view building when you look back), it really feels like the end of the world.

I told zj, it’s so beautiful here, I want to watch the sunset here. "Then we have to go to Danzhou?" "Shall we go to the salt fields and then come back here? I really think the sunset here will be beautiful." "Okay!"

Returning to Lingaojiao, we passed the nearby villages. You can see free-range chickens and ducks everywhere, as well as black goats "fighting" on the road as if no one is watching. However, when those buildings are completed and supporting facilities are built around them, the pastoral landscape here will no longer exist. So I am glad that I have been here before Lingaojiao became a private beach in a high-end residential area.

The sun was setting in the west, but the clouds were very thick, and it seemed that there were no fire clouds in the sky. Walking along the coastline, you will see shells and small snails washed up by the waves - these are almost non-existent in Sanya. Along the long coastline, there is no one else but us. There is a stone at the corner of Lingao, standing abruptly on the seaside. Under the golden sunset, it has a sense of loneliness and magnificence.

The sun sets little by little behind the clouds, the sky and sea turn from blue to pink blue, and then back to deep blue, and night finally falls. After leaving Lingaojiao, we drove for nearly 4 hours and finally rushed back to Sanya at 11 o'clock. We didn't originally plan to circle the entire island, but we were finally forced to do it in just two and a half days...

Hainan, as the only tropical island in China that can be freely entered and exited, retains many unique landscapes. It is a pity that the tide of urbanization and real estate development is swallowing up the original beauty little by little; modernization uses its unquestionable logic to extend to every place that has not been homogenized. I don’t know, should we give time to civilization, or should we give time to civilization?

Finally, I would like to thank the photographer assistant who accompanied me back to Lingaojiao to watch the sea despite the pressure of work!