hadn't planned to visit the End of the World. I thought Sanya, a small beach town on China's Hainan Island, was the `Hawaii of the EastÆ - at least that's what the China Travel Service would have me believe.
 















		I flew from Hong Kong to Haikou, Hainan's provincial capital. It was one of those very Chinese arrivals. The immigration officials claimed they couldn't find a stamp the right size for my passport, and then I had a disagreement with a taxi driver who maintained there was no earthly reason to sit around outside the airport waiting for customers if you weren't going to charge them double. 
 

















This was irrefutable logic, but it left me feeling hard done by - as China inevitably does - within an hour of touching down.
 














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All text © 1997 Chris Taylor. 
All images © 1997 Lonely Planet Publications. All rights reserved.