Taking the bus down to the water in Haikou
When I first came to China, in 2001, I didn't really have enough confidence to take the local buses. I had a bicycle, and that got me around, but I'm sure there was lots more to be seen if I had allowed myself to travel further. Now, whenever I stay in a new city, one of the first things on the TODO is to get on a bus and see where it takes me.
The buses in Haikou are very cheap, costing 1CNY per trip, which can easily be an hour's ride across the city. Today, late to start, I am lucky and get a seat. It's just after twelve and the lunchtime downtime has begun.
Four weeks ago this road wasn't here, the work still going on on the new elevated link across the city. There's is always construction work going on somewhere, but now I don't get the feeling I had before of crazy over-expansion. We were in Xinjiang in 2009, and woke up one Monday morning to find the internet switched off and soldiers stationed at all the crossroads. But that wasn't the scariest thing that summer: I remember reading that the government had injected 1 trillion CNY into the economy, post 2008 collapse and all that. But nothing bad happened and China keeps on building stuff and Chinese people keep on buying stuff.
I had thought that I was going to take lots of photos from the bus, but I fell into a reverie, and only took a couple. This is the lake in the centre of the city.
And this is squeezing past the No36 coming back on the return journey.
This is something we don't have in Wales: trees with aerial roots. It hasn't felt so humid here this summer and I have been very comfortable. When I first came to Hainan, in 2002, the heat was a great challenge. I think it must be because I have lost some weight. Previously I often used to get heat rashes in the summer.
This is really out of the narrative flow of the post, so please excuse the digression. Firstly, I said that it was after twelve and the midday downtime, and here is the proof, the guy having a nap on his workbench. It's not a good time to get attention in many shops. I guess the wood is the local tropical hardwood, that is to say the old trees from a replanting of a rubber plantation. My first job on Hainan was teaching at the South China University of Tropical Agriculture, and there I was told that the rubber plantations actually made more money from the wood than from the latex.
More apartments going up. This is looking across the to Haidian Dao, the small island on the northen edge of the city. Hainan University is here. Five or six years ago, this was another of the old village areas within the city, but then down it came. In truth, although there was lots of character, I don't think that the concrete in the old buildings would have lasted much longer. The one thing constant is change, as they say.
And here's a close up of a fisherman. The sea is very calm usually very calm here, and he could very well be returning from his trip, having a catch to take to the market I visited a couple of days ago. There used to be afternoon fish markets at either end of this water, but whether or not they're still open, I can't say.
Off in the distance is a small fishing fleet. I switch from using my mobile phone to the small Canon that we have, and the last two pictures are details from a larger file.
I find myself running out of vocabulary, I've got few words to talk about boats. I don't know whether the men live on these boats or not. It's possible. It must be strange for them to come back each time and see the city changing.
This is our last day in Haikou. Tomorrow evening we catch the train to Guangzhou, from there on the Hong Kong, and then on Tuesday we fly to Morocco. We decided to go to Morocco because my wife and son, who are Chinese, don't need a visa for a three month visit, and also because we made friends with a Moroccan girl when we were in Gaziantep.
It's a little sad to be leaving, but more than exciting to set off to try and build a new life. My son has already learnt bonjour -- next will be au revoir.
The photographs and the text are my own. You can find more of my posts here, @richardjuckes , including more pictures of Hainan, and some of my poetry.
Thank you for reading.