WITH the first train hitting the tracks of the Western Ring Railway on December 30, 2015 at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, the circular railway line around Hainan Island was finally complete.

While the east coast of the green pearl on the South China Sea has had a railway for years, making it much more populous and urbanized than the west coast, the new railway is expected to boost tourism for the west coast in the coming years.

In March, I took a seven-day trip up north along the west coast from Sanya to Haikou, the capital city of Hainan. The population of Sanya and Haikou account for one-third of the island' total. At some stations, I saw more staff members than tourists.

That said, the west coast does have some interesting tourism spots to offer and new construction projects are under way.

The train ride is pleasant in general, with comfortable seats and great views.

Sanya

I have some issues with the way some resorts are being described as “Aegean” even though they are not located in Greece or Turkey, or with islands being dubbed “Chinese Maldives.” When it comes to Sanya, neither of those two descriptions seem to live up to its beauty, the soft ocean breeze, the blue waves and the plethora of beach activities. So here we go.

Beach hopping

Tourism in Sanya ebbs after the Chinese New Year, but Wuzhizhou, a scenic island to the east of the city with breathtaking beaches and views of the sea is high in demand all year long. I waited for half an hour in line one morning at the dock at Haitang Bay where motor boats leave for the island in short intervals.

At first glimpse, Wuzhizhou Island, 20 minutes away from the dock, looks busy and commercial, but the beach makes for a wonderful seaside experience.

Walking toward the sea, you’ll find yourself stepping on pieces of corals and shells washed on and off the beach. Pick your favorite ones or simply watch them in the crystal clear sea water. On the beach and on the rocks, people are taking wedding photos.

All sorts of beach activities are available on the island. I can recommend hopping on a tourist car for a 30-minute trip. Almost at every turn during the ride up and down the island you’ll have a great view of the sea, the rocks and the endemic plants on the coast. The tour guide will introduce some special fish and plants along the way. The tour, I was told, is only available in Chinese language.

For beach entertainment, another popular option is Yalong Bay which is not far from Wuzhizhou Island.

Yalong Bay, compared with Dadonghai Bay and Sanya Bay, two other populous bays for tourists in Sanya, is said to have the most beautiful beach in the area.

On the other end of Sanya, near Sanya Bay, is Xidao Island, or the West Island. The beach and the sand there are a little less impressive than at Wuzhizhou Island, but if you’re looking for some beach action somewhere less crowded, it’s a good alternative. The wait to get on the boat for the West Island at Xiaoqi Port isn’t long, and the boat ride takes only 10 minutes.

At Niuwangling, a neighboring island, you can walk along the rocky coast and see the iconic turtle shape of the West Island from a hilltop.

One night at Dadonghai Bay

On a sunny day at this time of the year in Sanya, the most pleasant hours for a stroll are before 9am and after 6pm with the sun in hiding and cool winds blowing.

I can recommend a hike in Luhuitou Park in the evening. The park is located on the tip of a peninsula in the Dadonghai area and next to Sanya Bay, leading in from a scenic road lined up by hotels and resorts. It’s actually a hill, from the top of which you can have a bird’s eye view of the two bays as they’re gradually lit up when the night falls.

Luhuitou, literally “the deer turning its head,” got its name from a beautiful and romantic legend of people of the Li ethnicity, the first residents on the island. It’s said that a Li boy once hunted for a deer, and that the deer turned its head with a pleading look where the park is today. The boy gave up the chase, and the thankful deer turned into a girl. The two then lived happily ever after. This legend also earned Sanya the name “Deer City.”

You will find elements of the legend in the park. For example, there is a spot where you can hang your love locks. When you reach the hilltop, you will find a statue of a deer, a young man and a young woman, and you’ll hear someone singing Chinese love songs accompanied by a guitar.

But no matter if you are traveling alone, with a partner or with your family, the park is an ideal place to spend the evening.

When you come down the hill, you may find that public transportation or even taxis are a bit hard to come by. A 30-minute walk will take you to the only downtown bar street on the beach in Sanya — Donghai Road. The 200-meter-long street is lined with bars, restaurants and barbecue stands. A band was playing “Yesterday Once More” to diners of one restaurant, and a few steps away, the wistful “Moscow Suburban Nights” boomed through a megaphone.

Most of the tables up the beach are for 10 people and more, but you can grab something and come down to the beach to sit under the parasols or on the sand while the sea kisses the soft night.

Donghai Road is on the back of a shopping area with souvenir shops, large supermarkets and Xia Ri Bai Huo, or the Summer Mall, a landmark shopping complex in Sanya with top international brands as well as dining options.

Goddess of Mercy on the sea

During my stay in Sanya, I kept hearing “testimonies” of people who have visited the 108-meter-tall statue of Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, on the sea to the west of the city. A salesperson finally made a fortune after a visit and a woman finally conceived after trying to get pregnant for years, I was told. And, since the statue was put up in 2005, not a single typhoon has landed in Sanya.

The statue, the tallest in Guanyin, is located in the Nanshan Culture Tourism Zone, another highly popular tourist destination in Sanya. At the foot of the awe-inspiring statues, pious people offer incense and pray in silence, while tour guides ask the tourists not to take pictures of themselves overlapping with the statue or even appearing taller.

Follow suit as others pray if you crave some luck.

Getting about Sanya

Although bus lines cover almost all of the important tourist spots in Sanya, getting about the city by bus might not be convenient for those who don’t speak Chinese because signs at the bus stops are only available in Chinese. Taking one of the bright orange taxis is a good idea — just make sure that they turn on the meter and taxi fares are quite affordable.

Generally avoid traveling to Sanya during the Chinese New Year because taxi drivers as well as hotels will hike up prices.

It’s possible to rent a bicycle or a scooter from the hotels or in the city, and of course you can rent a car. A ride along the 10-kilometer coastal street of Sanya Bay in the shades of coconut trees is both relaxing and refreshing.

You can get some help in exploring the city by dropping in at the Sanya Resident and Visitor Center which is located in Dadonghai, in the same location as the former tax-free store on Yuya Road. The center exhibits all well-known tourist spots in Sanya and has English and Russian speaking staff to communicate with foreign visitors.

Staff there told me that foreigners come to them every day and that they’re most interested to know where the tax-free store is. The new tax-free store is located at Haitang Bay.

Aspirational Sanya(s)

During my trip, several people asked me whether I was travelling to Sanya to look into real estate. Real estate advertisements feature prominently in this fishing village, and it seems that most of the visitors have some sort of property investment on their mind.

Located not far from the “Qiziwan Ecological Tourism Zone” is Sanya’s most ambitious real estate development, according to locals. A worker there told me that they have been working day and night to push forward the project which envisions both residential buildings and villas as well as beach facilities.

Nearby, a high-profile hotel which has been placing advertisements on social networking websites for months is still under construction.

Qiziwan is a construction site, just like a few other scenic spots along the west coast of Hainan. But the most jaw-dropping project remains the artificial Sea Flower Island which is about five kilometers away from the Baimajing Railway Station in Danzhou city.

The 160-billion-yuan project is being advertised as “a miracle dedicated to the world” and “a cultural tourism fantasy coveted by the world”. Locals call it “another Sanya”, and when I consulted a professor on tourism from Hainan University before this trip, he mentioned the island as a tourist spot although it’s still under construction.

Qiziwan is an epitome of what is planned for the west coast, even if most projects are still under construction. The new railway will only accelerate the construction boom.

Sanya and Dongfang

CHANCES are you will meet members of the Li ethnicity, the first residents of Hainan, when you’re traveling along the west coast. Today, they account for one-seventh of the island’s entire population of 9 million, and most of them live in mountainous areas of the central and western parts of the island.

Those who have held on to their traditional way of life mostly reside in mountain villages hard to reach. The Binglanggu Li and Miao Cultural Heritage Park, located in the outskirts of Sanya, is a good alternative for interested tourists.

The park gives you a glimpse into the life of the Li people without feeling too kitschy.

You’ll find tattooed grannies sitting on a bamboo mat in front of a hut, working on brocade. You can freely enter the huts where they live and work, and try to ask them questions about their life, although they are generally taciturn. From their simple answers it’s hard to tell if they understand Mandarin well. My fellow tourists asked them how old they are, whether they live in the huts and whether water intrudes in the huts when there’s rain. I asked a granny how long it takes for her to finish a brocade work, and she said “six months.”

Up the hill in the Ganza Village, be ready to be greeted with the word “Bolong”. “Bolong” means betel nut in the Li dialect, but, as the nut is almost a synonym for hospitality, it has become a greeting.

The park is great for foreign visitors. Bilingual introductions are found at almost all of the attractions and museums within the park. It should take about four to five hours to have a nice stroll in the park.

The next day I took a train from Sanya to Dongfang and up to Baicha Village, which is said to be the best preserved original Li Village of boat-shaped huts. The round trip costs 250 yuan (US$38), a pre-fixed price with a local driver.

During the trip you get to see the magnificent Daguang Dam on Changhua River, the largest dam in Hainan, and its green terrain. With its dozens of boat-shaped huts, the village is tucked behind rows of uninspiring one-story residential buildings where the villagers live today.

When I met villager Fu Yonghe, a 28-year-old man, he was making some wood beads with his friends in the shade of one of the boat-shaped huts. The sound of a loud machine for processing the beads occasionally broke the peace of the dead village at high noon.

“This is my home. We moved out only five years ago, but fortunately some expert told the government that they can’t just level the old village which is one of the last of its kind,” he said.

Fu fondly recalled his childhood memories that usually a little shed was built in the front of a hut when a girl from the family was ready to find a husband. Boys would come to court her with sweet words.

“Sometimes a poor family couldn’t afford to build a shed and the boys would climb into the house through the cracks under the roof,” he said.

His dream is to turn the huts into pensions for tourists, although he said the government would rather let some developer build a similar facility on an empty lot next to the village.

“Can these huts accommodate people? Of course! It doesn’t have to be a ghost village like this,” he said.

Qiziwan

QIZIWAN, literally the Chess Bay, got its name due to its intact rocky beach studded by colorful stones large and small. The bay has a coastline of 20 kilometers, and one of its better known spots is Xiaojiao, literally the Small Cape. Fortunately, the scenic spot, which is located in the fishing town Changhua, is just 15 kilometers away from the Qiziwan Railway Station.

Hire a tricycle outside the station if you travel alone or with another person. Small tricycles should be readily available there, and 50 yuan (US$8) could get you from the station to Changhua Town in 20 minutes. If you travel in a group, you can take a bus from the station.

The town is so small that you can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes. A meandering path lined with crimson kapok blossoms will take you to the beach.

When I got there, I had the beach, which stretches about 200 meters, all to myself.

Look down beneath your feet for little shells of all colors. Look around for undulate sand dunes and exotic sand plants as dragonflies fly around you.

It’s not a bad idea to lodge in the town where you can watch the sun rise and set over the beach. When I arrived the town at about 3pm, all of the three hotels were fully booked, but it turned out that some residents had spare rooms in their houses. I ended up lodging in one of those houses facing the dock and the sea at the price of a hostel.

The dock wasn’t busy that afternoon because fishermen said the sea wasn’t calm. Women were sitting in the shade weaving fishing nets. From the anchored fishing boats at the dock, you could hear the fishermen singing songs in their local dialect while the smell of fish lingered in the air. Town residents are generally nice and helpful, and when I asked, some said they could take me on a fishing trip.

Besides hotels, the town has barbers, a pharmacy, grocery stores, fruit stands and restaurants although the prices of food and hotel rooms are comparable to those in first-tier cities.

On occasion, foreign visitors had come to the town, a police officer at the town police station told me.

“Usually they bring with them interpreters, but I remember in two instances we had to ask English teachers from the middle school for help,” the officer said.

Sadly, the sea at Xiaojiao is not suitable for swimming. Besides Xiaojiao, you can also check out another Qiziwan beach some five kilometers away from the town. It’s a public beach under the name “Qiziwan Ecological Tourism Zone.” For 20 yuan, you can rent a tricycle to get you there.

Fushan

IF you’re used to chic coffee shops in cities like Shanghai, you might be forgiven for being uncertain if Fu Qiao Cafe is, indeed, a real coffee shop.

On the porch and inside the café, tables are filled with middle-aged men, chatting loudly in their local dialect while they smoke. There are no muffins or cupcakes, but rice cakes and steamed cassava. Chinese calligraphy and paintings hang on the walls, with one western face on a poster that reads “The scent of coffee is our sincere invitation to you” in Chinese.

When I first met Wang Zaimao, Fu Qiao Cafe’s manager, he was on the porch watering some plants.

“Those who can’t appreciate good coffee look for stylish cafes, but real connoisseurs go only after coffee,” he said.

Fu Qiao is one of some twenty cafes which celebrate Fushan coffee — renowned around Hainan for its high quality and long planting history. Its teahouse style, I was told, was inspired by the common local teahouses.

Fu Qiao prepares its coffee the traditional way, and I observed Wang as he poured a cup for me. The ground coffee beans were placed in a cloth bag, and when water started to boil in a tin pot on the stove, he held the cloth bag over another tin pot while pouring the water over the bag.

“Both the timing of taking down the water from the fire and your gesture of holding the bag have subtle influences on the flavor of the coffee,” Wang said as he poured a cup of coffee from the tin pot.

First planted in 1935 by a returnee from Indonesia, Fushan coffee is known for its bitter and strong flavor that is best enjoyed when you don’t add condensed milk or sugar.

“When I don’t have busy work at hand, I’ll slip out of the office and have a cup of coffee with friends during the day,” said a man named Wang, who works at the local government.

If you’re looking for a cafe with more modern ambience and a younger demographic, there is also an array of choices.

I can recommend “936 Cafe,” a new-comer to the scene, and Cafe Craftsman.

Baimajing

FROM afar, you might only see a desolate field of Chinese ink slabs, but when you’re close enough to observe each of the little black stone troughs, you’ll find crystal white particles left on the surface, and when you taste them, they’re salty.

This salt factory, said to date back 1,200 years, is said to be the best preserved in China today. Located next to the busy Yangpu Port in Danzhou city, this spot, known as the “thousand-year-old salt field”, is located about 10 kilometers from the Baimajing railway station and easy to reach by taking a taxi.

Amid the thousands of troughs, which are made from volcanic rocks, there are many muddy pits with straws on the bottom, stone wells and large blue buckets. With no English introduction at the spot, it might be hard for a foreign visitor to understand how the factory works although you can take an educated guess.

I visited the factory on a rainy day when no one was working there, unfortunately, but this factory is still functioning and I was told that it produces 100 kilograms of salt on a sunny day.

Its workers — most of them in their 30s and 40s — are residents of a village of dozens of households adjacent to the factory, and most of them are surnamed Tan.

A lady who’s surnamed Tan runs a restaurant next to the factory. The restaurant cooks with the salt produced by the factory, and you can also buy some salt here.

Haikou

HAIKOU, the last stop of my trip along the west coast of Hainan Island took me back to the very start — the volcanoes.

The northern part of the island was formed by the eruptions of more than 100 volcanoes.

In Boxue Village of Yongxing Town, porous volcanic stones were used to build residential houses. There are similar villages in the area, but Boxue stands out thanks to Chen Tongkui and Chen Tongkua.

The brothers who run a pension in family home here decided to offer farming experiences to villagers. For a day, you can become a litchi farmer when the fruit is ripe in June, and learn to grind soybeans to make bean curd in the yard of the stylish pension which is named “Home of the Rosewood.” You can also ride a mountain bike on a challenging muddy path.

Tongkua, who’s looking after the pension with his girlfriend, will also take you for a ride on his motorcycle to explore the secrets of the mountain village — an amazing crater and a lava tube nearby, as well as the largely abandoned volcanic villages down the hill. When they were still inhabited, the number of water tanks used to collect rainwater were an indication of a family’s wealth.

Are the houses still inhabitable? Right away, Tongkua gives an affirmative answer.

“You don’t even have to worry about the storm and the rain because water will be drained from the cracks between the thick stones, and the floor of the houses won’t hold water and become sodden,” he said.

In the coming years, the brothers hope to be able to expand their little guesthouse and draw more interest from tourists.

The village is right off Mei’an exit of the G224 Highway and about 15 kilometers from the urban area of Haikou, not hard to reach but local drivers would propose double the taxi fare because there are few taxi customers around the spot.

The nearest train station is Haikou East.

About 10 kilometers from the village is “China Leiqiong Haikou Volcanic Cluster Global Geopark”, a national geological park with wonderful craters and among them, the crater of Ma’an Ling, which is 222 meters above sea level, overlooking Haikou City.