Like coffee, art and books? Then the Qi lou bookstore maybe for you. Located on the edge of old town (Qi lou) over the years it has become a meeting point for many before venturing into the arcade street.

Water shortage has been a consistent issue for generations in the volcanic region of Shishan. People in the area used to put large pot vats under their roofs to collect rainwater for daily use. With the local terrain being hard volcanic rock it has always been difficult to dig wells.

The Longevity photo exhibition will run until the 23rd October 2018 and is being held at the Hainan museum on Guo xing avenue, details on how to get there can be found at the bottom of this article.

What was once an arduous four hour drive along some of the windiest mountain roads in Hainan is now a swift two hour spin along the newly opened central motorway. The motorway passes through some of the most beautiful, mountainous rainforest regions in Hainan all the way to Wuzhishan city and then on to Ledong.

Many things about Hainan are exclusive compared to the rest of China. The noodles, the coconuts, the beaches and of course the beautiful local language of Hainanese. But perhaps the strangest and most thought provoking is the Island’s tradition around Spring Festival called the Junpo festival (军坡节).

One of the things I love about Hainan is that even after living here for almost eight years I can still jump in the car, drive out of Haikou for an hour or so and discover something I have never seen before.

A question I have been asked quite a few times by visitors is “where can I see the Miao Minority”? To which I usually answer, “Everywhere, Haikou, Sanya, Qionghai etc… they’re all around you going about their daily business”.

Hainan Opera (Qiong Opera) is a folk opera art of the Han ethnic group in Hainan Province. As a branch of southern operas, Qiong Opera uses Hainan dialect in its lyrics, Hainan hua,  thus it is popular only in Hainan Island, Guangdong and Guangxi.

Summer 2017, both Jake Canning and I decided to go on a round Hainan road trip by motorbike, 14 locations in 14 days. Although I have lived in Hainan for close to nine years now, it’s safe to say that there are still many, many places left to explore.