Travel:
Hainan Province is now one of the biggest tourist destinations in south China and transport links and facilities here have improved substantially over the past few years. By Air: Daily flights are available between Haikou and numerous domestic cities including Beijing (3 hours), Shanghai (2 hours), Chongqing (3 hours), Chengdu (3 hours), Wuhan (3 hours), Guangzhou (1 hour), Shenzhen (1 hour) and Zhuhai (1 hour). There are also international flights from Haikou to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The new airport, which is 20km from downtown and only 6km from the major hotels, has just been completed and is now in use. The easiest way to reach the airport is by taxi. By Road: Bus is the chief method of transport here due to the severely limited rail network on the island. Modern expressways mean that it is fairly easy to reach other destinations and cities in Hainan. The long distance bus station is centrally located south of Haikou Park on Daying Hou Lu. By Boat: Haikou can be reached by boat from southern cities in China including Guangzhou, Shantou, Zhanjiang, Beihai and Hong Kong. There are two harbors in Haikou, but most departures are from Haikou New Harbor and boats departing from here are fast. Slow boats depart from Xiuying Harbor. City Transport: Haikou is a fairly small city. The city center can be easily covered on foot within half a day. The bus fare is ¥1 without exception. Taxis are also easily available and the fare is ¥13 for the first 3km.

Cuisine:
As the capital city of Hainan Province, Haikou has some excellent food and cuisine available. Exotic fruit and seafood abound here and coconuts, mangoes, bananas and pineapples are sold all over the city at a fraction of the price elsewhere in China. Coconut milk is a popular drink but despite the abundance of all this exotic fresh fruit, it is not commonly used for cooking with. Hainan dishes do however, feature a lot of seafood and unusual fish. Mussels, crab meat, eel and crab all feature largely on menus throughout town. Hele Crab is a particularly tasty Haikou dish and a good place to sample this is in the restaurant in the Heyou Seafood Restaurant. Other good, (less aquatic) Haikou specialties include Wenchang Chicken and Jaiji Duck and the Yuegangchao Restaurant serve some excellent Hainan specialties. Standard Chinese cuisine is also popular here and there are some good family style restaurants around town serving up cheap hot pot which is becoming increasingly popular here, despite the juxtaposition of temperatures between the food itself and the temperature outside! Jichang Lu, Longhua Lu and Longkun Lu are good streets to hunt around for this kind of thing, lamb hot pot is particularly popular with locals here. The market on Bailong Nan Lu has a fun and lively atmosphere and is a good place to do some people watching and sample some more unusual and tropical fruit. The large immigrant population here hang out around these parts and the wonderful clothing and costumes of some of the minority groups light up the streets around these parts. International cuisine is widely available here too and most of the big hotels cater to western tastes, cashing in on the hordes of tour groups who pass through the city. The Irico Hot Spring Hotel has a few excellent restaurants serving high quality continental and Chinese dishes.

Climate:
The best time to visit Haikou is between November and April or between October and May. When the weather is fine here, this is a gorgeous spot, although on hot days it may be more comfortable outside the city and on one of the island's great beaches. October to May here is the rainy season and in September especially, expect to experience very heavy rainfall. During June to September typhoons are not unusual and very strong wind affects the city approximately once every ten days during this period. The rains however, do not last for too long and despite their severity if you plan your trip well, it's unlikely the bad weather will affect your plans too much.

Attractions:  ( = voted as the highly recommended attractions to visit)