Hainan best seen on two wheels
For 2,000 years, gumdrop-shaped Hainan Island was considered a good-for-nothing land of exiles, pirates and pestilential climate. Then, seemingly overnight, it became a tropical beach paradise, a land of tourists, speculators and perfect weather.
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Most people start here in Haikou and ride south down the central highway. Then they return up the east coast. You get the best of Hainan that way: the mountains and the sea."
Trip Planner
Good-quality Giant-brand bikes can be rented in Haikou at the Hainan Cycling Association (www.hicycling.com). Places to get fresh food, fruit and bottled water are never more than a couple of hours away along the route. Biking is good from autumn through spring; summer is blazingly hot, though cooler in highland areas.
Most larger towns along this cycling route have comfortable Western-style hotels, with the exception of Qiongzhong, where accommodation is still very basic.
Wuzhishan: Holiday Inn. No relation to the U.S. chain. Spacious rooms, mountain views, and a dash of Chinese styling make this the best hotel in the center of Hainan. Excellent Hainanese ethnic food on the second floor. (Rooms start at $35 a night; % 86-898-8663-2777)
Boao: Boao Inn. Homey little bed and breakfast just off the main strip, run by an American expat and Hainanese spouse. (Rooms from $60 a night; www.hainan-letsgo.com)
Baoting: Narada Tropical Resort. Expansive tropical gardens and luxurious outdoor hot-spring pools are the draw. Standard rooms and luxurious private wood cabins available. (Rooms from $245 a night; % 86-898-8388-8888)
It was possible to reach the coast in two days, but I took five, riding 40 to 60 kilometers a day, with one noncycling diversion to pad the time. I climbed Hainan's highest mountain (Wuzhishan, 1,876 meters), soaked in a hot spring, and photographed the brick villages that popped up one or two a valley.