5 Star Hotel

I am at the HNA Mingguang Grand Hotel in Haikou. This is maybe one of the cheapest 5 star hotels – 450 RMB per night. Compared to the 10K+ RMB crazy price for hotels in Yalong Bay in Sanya, and 800+ RMB village hotels, this seems shocking. Their service and hardware are 5-star hotel standard, at least based on my personal rating system…. Interestingly, they offer to issue boarding pass at the hotel lobby.

West Expressway

The day started from Jianfengling Ridge National Park at around K250 of West Expressway. Then we drove all the way up along the West Expressway from Sanya to Haikou, the capital of Hainan.

The expressway system in Hainan is pretty simple – a big circle connecting the Haikou on the north, and Sanya on the south. The west part is called West Line, and the east part, the East Line.

As many travelogue has already mentioned, the West Expressway is pretty boring. But to be fair, it is that type of boring nice scene with green tropical trees and plants covers the land. There is no industry, no business, and even no villages along the 300 km expressway.

The Hainan Expressway is all free. I am not used to driving up to an expressway in China without going through the toll gate. The fee is included in gas price – it is 7.32 RMB/liter for 93# gas as of today, about one RMB higher than Shanghai. That explains why Toyota and Honda almost dominate the car market so far – gas saving…