Sanya is unquestionably China's paradise!!!

I just returned from 5 days on the beach in Sanya, which is the southern most city in China. It was amazing. I was staying at a hostel, so besides having long days on the beach, I also met a ton of people from all around the world.

As you can see, the sand is white and the ocean is big.

Some basic beach chairs. They charge you $3 to use them for the day, which would be good if they were actually comfortable. After my first sunburn (day 1), I had to use the more giving sand.

Unfortunately for us, the rainy season was beginning, so the sky was not always so blue.

For some reason there are 2 monkeys in a cage just off of the beach. I don't get it.
Sanya has been greatly developed by many Russian travellers. This is the only place in China where you will find Russian on a sign instead of English.

There are a ton of women trying to sell pearls on the beach. The thing that kills me is that at the moment of this picture it is about 35 degrees celcius. Is that a neck warmer I see?

After work all of the locals come out. Their favourite thing seems to be burrying people in the sand. It never does get old.
Another popular thing on the chinese beach is to wear Hawaiin print suits. I don't know what the draw is, but they also seem to like to wear mathing suits.

The beach was full of foreigners, most of whom were very round Russian women in bikinis. This was a delight when compared to the Chinese men who show up after work and wear their white/beige underwear into the ocean. What a clear sight that creates.


The city of Sanya has little to offer, but the beach does make for a lovely picture, the cheap beers make for a fun night (and a very wasted Sabrina) and the Rainbow bar makes the best hamburgers I've had in my life. A wonderful time was had by all who went there.

Though I could have done many things, such as snorkelling, scuba diving or parasailing. I decided every day that the only thing I wanted to do was enjoy the sand. I did a lot of reading and napping on the beach, but I also held some creepy creatures. Very bizarre. He is much heavier than he looks.
His skin is hard too.
This guy was just gross.

He's not slimy, but he does slither, which is enough to make you cringe. He also has incredible muscle that seemed to always put his face towards mine. I was definfitely not comfortable at this moment.
This is the picture of the patio at the hostel. It was a great place with lots of interesting people. This particular day is poured (literally the sky opened up and dropped water for 4 hours), so we all crowded inside and drank some more beer. Rough life I know.
The room I was in was a co-ed dorm. Mostly it was ok, especially with some ear plugs.
I was sleeping on the top bunk. What you can't really see is how hard it is. The bottom has an almost soft mattres (its actually quite soft for chinese standards), but my bed is a thin sheet over a hard slab of wood.

I didn't realize how bony I was, but here you can sort of see the bruise I got from sleeping on this bed.

I thought I would be totally devastated to leave (truth is I wasn't happy to retun to Suzhou-especially since I still have 5 days off---blame the lack of organization on my school. Yet another reason to love them), but I was only a little sad. Maybe this means I'm actually growing up and realizing that all things must come to an end.