qizi bay 祺子湾

The focus of my travel to Hainan Island [ 海南岛 ] was to explore Qizi Bay [ 祺子湾 ]. This is a stretch of 15km, from north to south, S-shaped coastline of sandy beach and rocks punctuated with coves ending at Changhua town [ 昌化镇 ]. We stayed at Changhua from 3rd till 6th instant exploring the Bay.

There was no guide or map on this rock 'trekking'. (I found this place on the internet and gungho I wanted to explore as I love rock formation coastlines.) We went by our instincts though. Along the way, a Chinese male visitor at the beginning of the Bay (or Dajiao literally meaning Big Point) told us not to trek those rocks alone!

The Bay is divided into 3 sections: Dajiao 大角 (Big Point), Zhongjiao 中角 (Mid-point) and Xiaojiao 小角 (Small Point).

A China Chinese friend from Guangzhou and I met at Haikou city, the capital of Hainan Island. We stayed a night at Banana Hostel, a place where overseas visitors stayed. Unfortunately this is not well-run. This friend reckoned it was expensive staying here.

We took a bus from the Western bus station at midday picking up commuters along the way until plying on the expressway. The condition of the roads and expressways were excellent -- no potholes.

Banana and mango plantations lined the west coast and flax were planted where water was lacking. We crossed several bridges. A chinese man told me proudly, "There is no flood in Hainan. All the water flows back to the sea."

The little towns we passed by were clean and tidy.

At one stopover, I had to ease myself and I was pleasantly surprise to find the squatting toilet, was clean and not smelly! This is not a flushing toilet, but there was a huge jar of water to clean it after each use. (Remember to bring your own toilet paper.) Whew! Later I was told the toilet (stood next to a shop) belongs to a home -- that was why it was clean and no odor!

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The bus driver dropped us at the first hotel sighted in Changhua town around 5pm. This was a one-year-old lodging providing room and no food. The room was spacious with a queen-size bed and a single bed -- for a family I suppose. There was comforter on the bed to keep us warm, an airconditioner if we needed to cool ourselves and there was electricity and hot water!

After checking in, we had to look for our evening meal. Eventually we ended up in the restaurant I found on the internet. Unfortunately the gentleman was not available to be our guide as he now owns a prawn farm. He showed us some photos of the natural rock sculptures and legends behind the unique pieces of rocks from his photo album.