On December 25, my family and my sister's family went to Sanya, the southernmost city in China's southernmost island of Hainan, for a week's vacation. We all stayed in several treehouses located in the Nanshan Cultural Resort Area, a kind of Buddhist theme park. Here you can see a statue of the Guanyin Buddha rising from the sea. This was the view we saw from our treehouse when we woke every morning. The statue is pretty impressive. Lonely Planet says it's the tallest statue in the world, taller than the Statue of Liberty, and it's next to a nice beach to boot!
The treehouses are built on some stout tamarind trees situated on a large sand dune next to the beach. They are now the management of the theme park, which also boasts a hotel, several restaurants, villas on the hillside and a nice outdoor swimming pool. We were allowed to use the hotel's facilities, which included internet, and the swimming pool for free. Here is the largest treehouse where the four kids stayed. You can see the suspension bridge that led from their treehouse to the other treehouses.
Just a short walk down the sand dune from the treehouse was a nice beach which could very well have been ours because no one else used it. The kids liked to walk down there and jump in the waves and make sand castles. We also had a bonfire on the beach one night. The only thing we were missing was the marshmellows.
We really had a great time (except for one hair-raising adventure I will related in a separate post). The kids played well together, the adults got a lot of reading done, and we enjoyed each other's company. One great thing about being in the treehouse is that we got away from all the tourists that flood Sanya about this time of year. It was a patch of China all to ourselves. Plus, we had a great attendant, Xiao Xu, who was always on hand to order food for us or call a shuttle to bring us to the swimming pool. If you want to see all of our treehouse pictures, go to www.flickr.com/photos/theshiehs/sets/
1 comment:
I know you posted this a long time ago, but I am glad I found your little Hainan treehouse adventure. It brought back memories for me. I stayed there a few days after a long study tour through Guizhou province. When we were at the treehouse they were still building the Guanyin statue. It's nice to see it complete. I believe I have images of it being built.
Anyway. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
BTW, are there fishermen still on the beach? A friend of mine and I hung out with one for several hours.
Post a Comment