The ‘Hawaii of China’

One of the best things* about working for an international school is that we celebrate all the holidays. All of them. The first week of October was National Holiday in China. I wikied that jank and found out that the ‘People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949 in Tiananmen Square.’ (Wikipedia, 2013) Prior to this, I had no idea that the PRC is only 60-something years old – thank you wiki and chrome. The week after October 1 is the one of two Golden Weeks. I’m not sure when the other Golden Week is but I will find out. Hopefully through the experience of being off for it.

Super Typhoon Usagi

For our Golden Week, we went to Hong Kong for a day and then flew to Sanya. Sanya was described as and I quote ‘the Hawaii of China’. As I have never been to Hawaii, I can’t entirely speak to this, but I will definitely agree that it is still China. My expectations and I need to have a serious discussion.

We stayed at a hotel that was 30 seconds away from the public beach access and 30 seconds away from the restaurant we hit up 5 times in the 3 days we were there. If you ever find yourself in Sanya, I would recommend staying somewhere that has a private beach. Consider yourself forewarned. Otherwise you will see more mankinis being ogled by locals in pants and long sleeve shirts than you thought were currently being produced in the world.

I’m just going to come right out and say it. Sanya is overwhelmed with Russians. In other words, the locals see so many Russians that they speak fluent Mandarin, fluent Russian, and 2 words of English – FOOOOOOT MASSSSSSSAGE. Since those were the only 2 words we needed to hear, it worked out well. We met one man who approached us with a flyer and started speaking in Mandarin. We said ‘ting bu dawn’ (I hear you, but I don’t understand what you’re saying) and he immediately switched into Russian. We said ‘American’ and he again, immediately switched into English. So impressive right? The sad thing is, in the States he could get a killer job knowing all those languages – in China, he sells foot massages.

and we also got hand massages…

Foot massages are becoming quite the theme on this here blog. Because I am obsessed. In Sanya, we got foot massages 2? 3? of the 3 days we were there. I can’t remember because it was all bliss and cost $6.56 USD. The last time we were there, they brought out some Russian candy for us and um, it was delicious. No lie. Those people know how to make some chocolate.

Joey went to get milk for his cereal and it was all hot.

 Things we learned about Russians while on vacation in China:

–       they prefer the least amount of clothing on the beach but layer up when walking back to the hotel (I’m talking straight banana hammocks and then putting on board shorts and robes to walk back)

–       they like foot massages too

Leaving Sanya

*You and I both know that when I said ‘one of the best’, I really meant ‘the greatest thing to have ever happened to my professional life’.

What we’re listening to in the classroom.