Airlines Phoenix airport booking office
is at the junction of Gangmen Lu and Jiefang
Lu, Sanya, (Mon-Sat 9am-noon & 1.30-5pm;
tel 8278221 or 8277409). There's also a major
Hainan Air booking office just north of the
bus station (tel 8279487).
Banks and exchange The main Bank of
China, Jiefang Lu, Sanya (Mon-Fri 8am-noon
& 2.30-6pm), is excruciatingly
understaffed and slow. There's also a
Dadonghai branch, but it has been known to
refuse to cash travellers' cheques. Buses
Minibuses from Jiefang Lu reach as far as
Tongshi, Yazhou and Lingshui, while
long-distance buses head east to Haikou and
coastal destinations, west to Yazhou and
Dongfang, and north to Tongshi. If you can't
find them at the bus station, luxury buses to
Haikou are best organized through agents or
your accommodation.
Post office Sanya's GPO is on
Xinjiang Lu, Sanya (daily 7.30am-7.30pm).
Scuba diving Low visibility and
maximum depths between 10m and 30m don't make
Hainan the most exciting location, but it can
be good fun and there's always the novelty of
having dived in China. The three areas are at
Yalong Bay, east of Sanya (best for its
moderate coral growth, variety of fish and
lobster); Tianya Haijiao, over to the west
(good for molluscs, but extremely shallow);
and the coral islands, also west (the deepest
sites). Staff are NAUI/PADI qualified, and
you'll be expected to flash a C-card, but
don't expect anything like dive tables,
gauges, or alternate air sources to be used.
Two shore dives cost ¥380, two boat dives ¥550.
Shopping Sanya is an good place to
pick up pearls, white, pink, yellow or black.
The best buys are from local hawkers on
Dadonghai beach, who sell strings of
"rejects" for ¥50 or less with hard
bargaining. Most of these pearls are perfectly
genuine, just not of good enough colour, shape
or size for commercial jewellery. If in doubt,
scratch the surface - flaking indicates a
thinly coated plastic bead.
Travel agents Upmarket hotels have
their own travel desks, or try Sanya Dragon
Travel, west past the Hawaii Hotel on
Luling Lu, Dadonghai (8.30am-5pm; tel 8213526,
fax 8213799). They speak some English, and can
arrange car rental if you've got a licence (¥350
per day, plus credit card deposit); scuba
diving; mountain bike rental (¥40 a day);
coral island or fishing trips; airport
transfers and bookings; and day tours to
Tongshi.
