Four hours from Sanya, DONGFANG (Basuo) is an industrial port with unfortunate associations. During the 1940s, the Japanese took Dongfang as their Hainan headquarters, developing mining operations inland, building the goods rail line which still runs between here and Sanya, and executing thousands of Li who are buried in a mass grave on a nearby hill. Arms smuggling and a large floating population of Vietnamese, Malay and Filippino "merchants" and boat crews on shore leave have given the town something of a wild reputation today, with tales of gun battles and banditry surrounding freelance gold mines in the area. However, though it's friendly enough, Dongfang itself is definitely dull. Should you end up here, there's one grey, overly long main street, a few places to eat and the best-value hotel is next to the bus station (¥30-75). Plenty of onward traffic covers the roads back to Sanya or northeast to Haikou via Danzhou.