ABOUT HAIKOU

by ash & lee


Ni Hao?

(or How are You?)

INTRODUCTION

During a brief spell as an ersatz hausfrau, while my wife Lee brought home the bacon, I decided that I should do something with the video photographs I had taken and so the result was supposed to be a simple webpage about Haikou. Once it was published online at Geocities I felt that I couldn't leave it in that state and so began a labour of love, not really love, but you know what I mean. If a job's not worth doing then it's not worth doing well. Instead of doing something useful like learning Putonghua I'm wasting my time messing with the PC.

Taking a leaf from the Dirty Digger's newspaper, I shall not let the facts get in the way of fiction if it makes this webpage more interesting to visitors. Normally, one's musings and jottings would remain private or be consigned to the trash can, but the World Wide Web has put paid to all that. Now, I, along with countless others in Haikou, well 2 or 3 anyway, who have far too much time on their hands can do a "Wharhol" and experience the vicarious thrill of our 15 minutes of fame (in this case anonymity) on the Web.

Seriously though, my attempt at writing will be a mere adjunct to the pictures which as some Chinese scholar once said were worth a thousand words or one or two at least.

HAINAN ISLAND

Hainan Island is a tropical island, the 2nd largest island in China after Taiwan, and we live in Haikou City the capital. Hainan is situated off the south coast of mainland China with the Gulf of Tongking and Vietnam to the west. The island exports large quantities of produce to the mainland and it's not uncommon to find better quality fruit and vegetables in the major cities than is available locally.

A major gas pipeline and production platform near Sanya were completed at the end of 1995 to supply gas to Black Point Power Station in Hong Kong. There are no major smokestack industries on the island and the authorities aim to keep it that way as they wish to promote Hainan, especially Sanya in the south, as the "Hawaii of the Orient" but with Asian characteristics.

Still I digress and this is not supposed to be travelogue but a pictorial. However, a description will be given just so that visitors may better understand the photographs - a case of one picture needing a thousand words.


Contents

[Bicycles & Motorcycles] - [Dining] - [Er Lu or 2nd Street] - [Flower Fairy] - [Hash House Harriers in Haikou] - [Umbrellas] - [Signs] - [Silver Valley Gardens]

Latest Additions 12 November 2000

[Yang Shuo]   

18 November 2000

[BikeMeister] - [Oldies] -  [Taipan] -  [Game Fishing] - [Yang Shuo 2]  

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[SliceMeister]  


Comments to [avkimsing@yahoo.com] or

Author: Ashley Kim Sing © 1998. All rights reserved.

For those technofreaks out there: Photographs are taken with JVC DVL-9000 Digital Video Camera. Max resolution 768x576. Not the ideal hardware for sharp pictures but that's all I have.

Disclaimer: All events, pictures, stories portrayed herein are entirely apocryphal and any revelations about persons known and unknown is not accidental.

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