Hainan-Sanya-Haikou Expat

Well we can certainly agree they don't belong on the same plate together no matter how good a cook you are! You'll find the answer by heading over to the Coffee World Pizza Corner located in the lobby of the Herton Hotel right on the beachfront at Dadonghai to enjoy some of their new recipes including a Banana Split, Oreo Mocha Smoothie, Homemade Baked Lasagna and a Fisherman's Pizza. Gotta try the Shepherd's Pie too... !

Well, is it or isn't it one of the best local island beaches around? We say yes Dadonghai beach an awesome, funky, bohemian 3km crescent moon shaped beach hangout lined with one of the world's very best 30m wide exotic tropical wood and garden boardwalks complete with a mixed selection of cafes, bars and seafood restaurants with 15rmb beers and fresh fruit juices. Hey, what MORE do we want in a local beach? All that's comparatively missing is beach front bungalows.

No I haven't lost my mind as we all know there is a big challenge to overcome here. My original Dadonghai Beachfront Boardwalk article below published first in 2007 points the way to how you can still enjoy Dadonghai beach even though the neighborhood construction projects loom darkly over the neighborhood. The trick is to head straight to beach, buffered still by one of the world's finest 30 meter wide tropical wood and garden landscaped boardwalk of cafes and restaurants for over 2 kilometers. Highlights include Vanda's Russian and Pattaya Thai restaurants, both right next to the Intyme Resort along with a stop at CoffeeWorld for a perfect espresso and great variety of smoothies, pizza and other menu items, you'll even find a well made fresh hummus plate!

The photo is from one of the room balconies at our #1 Recommended NanFeng Guest Hotel, still the finest little budget spot in all of Sanya with summer rates for beachfront balcony rooms at only 268rmb/nite!!

Original 2007 Dadonghai Boardwalk Article

I digress a bit by encouraging you to tolerate the downtown noise for the sake of "must visits" to Wayne's Silk Street where you'll find a superb and reasonably priced selection of fashions. Follow your shopping with a superb dinner round the corner at Marco Polo Italian restaurant. Highly recommend order the mascarpone cheese pasta with caviar along with Franco's outstanding twin fillet steak dinner plate. You'll also find an authentic Hong Kong breakfast dimsum restaurant on the 2nd floor of the BaoHong hotel just up the road, naturally followed by a visit to Surfinghainan to catch the waves...

You can love Surfing Hainan's owner Brendan Sheridan for doing a nice job bringing the surfing world to Hainan. He quipped to me the other day in a chat window "Geez man, I've never had such a hard time inviting someone for breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental!"

The story goes that deep down I knew it was a fabulous idea that was probably not going to work out so well for me, but I didn't have the heart to tell him and I finally gave in, accepting his very generous invitation for a "Breakfast Paddle" to the Mandarin Oriental.

Let me explain. Brendan does a "Breakfast Paddle" where you hop on a big, fat long board at Dadonghai beach with a paddle, stand up on the board and paddle around 30 minutes over to the shores of the Mandarin Oriental hotel for a sumptuous buffet breakfast and paddle back.

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Here's a quick set of tips and recommendations for the Sanya beaches as we approach the Chinese New Year in Sanya.

Yalong Bay - This is a great beach to spend the day. If you want fancy, park at the Sheraton/Marriott/Hilton/Ritz end. If you want to enjoy a great beach on a budget, park at the Holiday Inn end of the beach and you will find many beachside vendors offering typical low priced Chinese street food/barbecue and drinks. In front of the Aegean Conifer is a barbecue/snack cafe on the beach with nice tables and chairs in the shade.

Dadonghai - The center of this beach rates a a big time AVOID. If you stay the far west end (near the Dadonghai Square and South China hotel) or east end (near the Jin Ling and Shan Hai Tian hotels) the beach area and boardwalk is great. Find Wave Bar for cheap beers at the beach. If you stay in the middle of Dadonghai, stay ONLY at the beachfront. 30 meters back its a filthy Armageddon leaving me wondering why any tourist in their right mind would ever voluntarily sit street side to have a meal and feel happy.

However, suffer the neighborhood to enjoy Marco Polo Italian restaurant, Pattaya Thai restaurant on the beach in front of the InTyme resort, and the 2nd floor Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant at the BaoHong hotel. Also heard recently that Blue Lotus russian restaurant is currently serving up really good chow.

Sanya Bay - What's better than a 20km long sunset beach lined with tropical palm trees and grass for shady areas to picnic? However, the water and sand are below what one would hope. The best of Sanya Bay is at Jin Ji Ling Lu where you'll find Fat Daddy's and Casa Mia and the Japanese restaurant. Also, drive about 5 km further up toward the Howard Johnson and look for lantern lights on the beach where you'll find local vendors with chairs and tables right on the beach doing barbecue and cold beers...fabulous.

Cheers, M

Does our venerable and respected real estate veteran Sam Crispin hit the mark with his round two jab on the continued boiling cauldron of real estate stew here in Sanya?...

Sam recently weighed in with this insightful and important comment:

"Rumours about of Hainan offering visa free access for nationals of over 20 countries and that the real estate market, as I and not Mario predicted, is going nuts again. Watch what happens over Chinese new year, that's the peak sales season in this hot, hot, hot market! Mario, there's more than one beer riding on this."

Perhaps Sam hits on some encouraging thoughts here with some substance behind them. In fact, with the Chinese New Year holiday coming, he is right on the mark regarding the seasonal bump in asking prices heading into the Chinese New Year season, so there is some truth to the idea that the market is "heating up" a bit. After all, I hate to be a touch negative but the holidays are the perfect time to find more suckers bidding prices unreasonably higher and higher just like the stock markets. And if they're willing to come to Sanya that week paying full airfare and 5000rmb/night for a 15000rmb room, by all means, let them pay inflated prices for Sanya's property too!

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The China / Asia Boom Continues for 2010

Despite calls by some political and investment analysts that China is in a dangerous economic bubble ready to burst, a closer look at the situation makes it easy to doubt that will happen. Most analysts continue to underestimate the power of CASH CASH CASH. Chinese have more cash than most of us can imagine; I'm talking the government AND the citizens. There are many more pieces to the puzzle but this is the leading indicator of the direction most likely for 2010. More so, southeast Asian countries especially India and Australia will continue to benefit from the China-led expansion of the century.

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Announcement: Rent The SanyaExpat Car! Only 280rmb per day this month!! 2 day minimum
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Sanya Goes Luxury

This expectation of continued growth and infrastructure expansion in the Pacific Rim certainly includes development in and around Sanya & Hainan Island. More so, we are seeing clear evidence of Sanya going upmarket, another indicator of the incredible wealth being created here. Haitang Bay is loaded with world-class luxury brands as well as St. Regis coming to Yalong Bay, and the Intercontinental soon to open, joining luxury villa Banyan Tree Resort on the Lu Hui Tou Peninsula.

Dadonghai

For Dadonghai, we follow the rule as when playing the classic board game Monopoly: GO DIRECTLY TO THE BEACH. DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT $200. DO NOT STOP. ONLY GO DIRECTLY TO THE BEACH! If you follow that bit of advice, you can actually enjoy the best of Dadonghai beach which is its excellent boardwalk-lined beach. Meanwhile beachfront new construction at the Armageddon meteor-sized Jin Jiang Golden Garden complex behind the InTyme Resort has an asking price of 20,000rmb/psqm for a 14th floor unit in the recently open for sale building II which is the prime building closest to the beach

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