Wednesday, March 14, 2018, Haikou, China

Capital of China’s Hainan province, the vibrant and remarkably modern city of Haikou is situated on Hainan Island, off China’s southern coast.  With its strategic location near the mouth of the Nandu River, the culturally rich city grew into a walled fortification during the Ming dynasty.  Today, nestled amid its gleaming skyscrapers, the Old Town is a gleaming-white blend of colonial-era Portuguese and French facades with Indian and Arabic accents, a style known as tong lau.  

Much of the historic district was built by wealthy Chinese from the mainland and today is lined with market stalls and arcades selling colorful wares from fabrics and clothing to spices and dried foods.  Today this small island is considered as the Hawaii or Miami Beach of China for its mild winters and warm summers.  It is a tourist destination for the retired wealthy and Politburo.  It is also a fishing village and major seaport for freight.

Views as we approached our dock.  It was a foggy and rainy morning.

Our tour excursion buses in background waiting for us to clear customs.

Big brother watching.

On our way to first stop at a local market.

Note all the motor scooters.  All are electric as gasoline is very expensive.  These are extremely quite and dangerous for pedestrians.

I took this picture sitting in my seat behind the rear axle on right side of bus.  Wonder why they are stopped looking at us?

The driver turned into the parking lot too sharply and got the window in front of us into scaffolding by the sidewalk.

Back side of apartment building whose front was on the shopping market's street.  Note hanging clothes and solid fences.

Stores on both sides and full length of the street.

The block-long street had a half dozen metal figures.

Store in background with electric (battery) motor scooters in front.

All items in the store were hand carved from coconuts by the fellow behind the lady in pink sweater.

Entrance to temple focusing on protection for fishermen going out to sea.

Battery powered motor scooters.

The three girls were stopping us for a chat and obtaining autographs from us.

These two stole the show along the sidewalk.  The little girl was fascinated with pushing cell phone buttons causing lights to flicker.  Kids are kids no matter where or nationality.

Our second stop was at a park along the shore.

Monument dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives fighting for China's "liberation" from the democratic leader Chang Kai Chek in 1950, defeated by Mao Tse Tung who started the Peoples Republic of China.  Think about this!

Puppet show in the park with puppeteers and musicians behind the screens.

Note the elaborate apartments in the back ground.  Not for the working people.

Apartments under construction.  Again not for the working man in this resort island.

What a surprise; the buses are also battery powered.  Ran very quietly; with no hills and a very small island it works.

We are now on our way to Saigon; there are two sea days getting there.  With the US going onto day light savings time and us moving one more time zone to the west, we are now 12 hours different from Central Time.  Weird!  When it's noon Central Time we are midnight the next morning - wow.