Once apon a time a village - part of Haikou

This is the neighbourhood in Haikou where my wife grew up, and where we lived for three years when my son was born. But it could really be any part of the city, although the locals will be able to hear the variations in the Hainanese spoken.

These road junctions are huge, by UK standards, but nothing compared to the main intersections in the city. When we were living here I had a bicycle, but now it's nice to walk. I think that there are maybe fewer bikes around than previously, but there are way more electric bicycles. The tall apartment buildings appear to be on some higher ground, but that is not the case. They are just very tall.

Taxis are good in Haikou, and without hestitation always use the meter, unlike in Foshan. The only difficulty with taxis here is that a certain times of the day, when the shifts change, the drivers won't pick you up because they are penalised for being back late to the depot.

Safe to cross? No, the taxis accelerate past the bus.

It's not difficult crossing the road here, but it is a little scary at first. The secret is to move across the road at a steady pace and not to change direction, then everybody can weave their paths without collision. Another thing to avoid is making eye-contact with an approaching driver, as that seems to confuse them.

Electric bicycles everywhere, but at least now there is some order to their parking. A few years ago the pavements were full and the pedestrains had to walk in the road.

Well, they still do sometimes. One thing to be aware of in these bike lanes it that the electric bikes travel in both directions.

OK, here's the local wet market. There are supermarkets with coffee and pasta to found, several Carrefores for example, but why live in a foreign country and put so much energy into eating food from home? Another lovely surprise was that when we came back here last month, after an absence of three years, many of the traders recognised me and said hello, asked after my son. I suppose Haikou, and Hainan, is my second home now.

The fish are upstairs here. We used to eat a lot. The local chicken is very good as well, if you find the right person to buy from. The beef is excellent too, coming from the small yellow humped cattle that graze on rough ground all over the island, so that they are more or less free range.

More fish. We're in a small hotel now, so no kitchen, but I think there is more choice than three years ago.

Lots of eggs, always eggs. The blue ones on the right are duck eggs.

I used to buy fruit from the ladies who traded on the streets close to the market, but they seem to have been chased away now. It's an interesting lesson in economics, where the high school classes tell us that the supermarkets have economies of scale: the reality is that no-one can undersell a grandmother who is prepared to sit by the side of the road all day to sell 2kg of apples. Her only overhead is her hat. So the city has to chase granny away, tidying the place up.

These are the back streets behind the market, off the main road. I thought I had taken more then these two pictures, but I guess my card must have been full.

I have the same observation as yesterday: the whole area has been greatly improved and looks to now be an important part of the city's development stratagy. Along these backstreets there were many small shops and restaurants. There are also many trees and because the roads are so narrow there is also a lot of shade. It seems strange, being that I grew up in the Welsh countryside, but I think I can honestly say that this would be a nice place to live.

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The text and the photographs are entirely my own work. You can find my other posts here, @richardjuckes , included more pictures of Hainan.

Thank you for reading.