Hainan Island - Girls Weekend!

In anticipation of my upcoming girls weekend to Hainan Island, I'm doing research on the island itself. Kinda geeky, yes I realize that, but this is typically what I do prior to any trip. I'm a research geek, I love to wiki, google, and search through travel websites to download information on my next destination.

Basic Stats on Hainan (Hai = Ocean, Nan= South) Island:

Location: Hainan Island is located in the South China Sea, separated from Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula to the north by a shallow and narrow strait. It has an area of 33,920 square kilometers, making China's southernmost province also its smallest. Hainan is comparable in size to Belgium.


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Native Peoples: Hainan first enters written Chinese history in 110 BC, when the Han Dynasty established a military garrison there. Settlement by mainlanders was slow however and from early on the island was considered to be fit only for exiles. It was in this period that the Li people arrived from Guangxi Province and displaced the island's aboriginal Austronesian-speaking peoples.

Tourism: We will be staying in Sanya, a town on the southern tip of the island, Sanya is supposedly the most common tourist-y location with nice beaches, hotels, outdoor activities, etc. We're looking forward to spending a lot of time on the beach, reading and relaxing away from the craziness of Shanghai.