English crucial to Hainan island's tourism plans
The Chinese know it, and so do the Russians, but Hainan is a mystery to most of my friends.
On a recent visit to my Australian homeland, I told everyone I was moving to Hainan to study Chinese. I e-mailed a mate in London, and spoke to an aunty in Florida, too, and everybody asked: "Hi, where?"
But I told them they'll soon know. When I reached Hainan's sandy shores for the first time last year, the tourism potential was ripe as a coconut and ready to be picked.
The sun-kissed coastline with so many clean and empty beaches, is as good as in Thailand and life is cheap in Sea (hai) South (nan).
School fees are half of that in Beijing, and rent for a two-bedroom apartment is 1,600 yuan ($235) per month. For lunch, I eat 6 yuan chao fen (type of noodles), and for dinner, fresh BBQ seafood (30 yuan). And for 5 yuan, I ride to school in a three-wheel san lun che, which is like the tuk-tuks of Thailand.
There aren't the same professional opportunities here for expats like there are in China's bigger cities, but there will be when Hainan's international tourism campaign springs into action.
And at this time of brain storming my one suggestion is this.
Along with the new 5-star hotels, exclusive yacht clubs and 1,500-yuan-a-game golf courses, why not develop the world's best English language school to build an army of English-speaking hospitality workers to better serve international visitors.
They have to speak English, and provide a higher level of service, not just for foreigners, but also for the Chinese, who have toured the world and know what 5-star service is.
I've lived and traveled around China for nearly four years, and from my limited experience in Hainan, English speakers are very rare. There is David, a local who owns the 500 Mile Bar, named after that folk song, but I've met more English speakers during a weekend in Changsha, Hunan province, than in three weeks in Haikou, Hainan's provincial capital. This is an issue if Hainan wants international tourists, who don't want confusion.