Anyhow, Sanya is on the southern portion of Hainan Island which is in the south of China. Sanya has been called the Hawaii of China because of it's tropical weather and it has prices to match the reputation. The flight from Chengdu to Sanya was RMB1820 or ~$250. I'm staying at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Yalong Bay which has a whole string of 5-star hotels, including a Mandarin Oriental opening in Q2. My room is about $200/night which is really expensive for China but it's pretty nice. There are actually a lot of foreigners staying at the hotel and they look mostly Eastern European; all the signage at the hotel has Chinese, English, and Russian. There are also a lot of business meetings here as well. I saw a lot of people in Nestle polo shirts and a group from Singapore sat next to me during dinner. I think the 2007 Miss World contest was held at the Crowne Plaza in Sanya.
View from the room's balcony
The hotel definitely has a Chinese architectural theme
Inappropriate beach attire
Coconut juice for RMB5. Basically they hack off a coconut with a machete and drill a hole in with a power drill (visible in the picture... the drill bit was pretty gross). Add one straw and you have a tropical drink!
Night view in Crowne Plaza's shopping/dining village. Since Yalong Bay is pretty far from Sanya City and only has large resort type hotels, Crowne Plaza built a shopping/dining complex next to the hotel. It looks like a bunch of different shops and restaurants, but everyone is a hotel employee.
I'm headed back to the cold and gloom of Chengdu tomorrow. The weather in Sanya has been either overcast or rain showers, hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow for one last beach day. Leon is arriving in Chengdu on Monday so it's mostly PMI related work next week.
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