Hainan Island, in the South China Sea, is what the Chinese call their Hawaiian Paradise. It does have sea, sand and (some) sun, banana and coconut palms, lots of half-naked tourists and the rest dressed in Hawaii-style prints (with couples wearing matching outfits).
The Russians started coming here over a decade ago and so the island is filled with 20 or more storied time-share condos mostly owned by residents of the former Soviet Block. The nouveau riche tourists are well catered to as most of the store and restaurant signs are in Russians. The beach was littered with white skin with many deciding that less was more in terms of how much to cover up.
Li and Miao Ethnic Village: One of the reasons for travelling to Hainan Province is to learn more about the two main ethnic minority groups on the island: the Li and the Miao people. Their relative distance from Beijing has afforded them more freedom than most people and has allowed them to preserve their cultures, languages and religions in a way that wasn’t as easily managed in other parts of China.
As a matter of fact, the distant island was the location of banishment for many a courtesan, politico, and bureaucrat – and later, Cultural Revolution no-good-niks – who were sent to Hainan Island to live in exile.
Performances for tourists include: walking on glass, men sort of touching their feet to hot metal, juggling fire batons, performing traditional dances and playing traditional music on traditional instruments.
There were many craftspeople carving wood, weaving traditional cloth on hand-made looms, and more shops than you could count selling all of these crafts and a myriad of other stuff not likely made here or related to these cultures.
The Miao people are known as H’mong in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand and a relatively large population lives in the California central valley. There are some 60,000 of them living on Hainan Island along with 38 other minority groups.