Week 2

This week was setup so myself and the rest of the newbies within the team could scout out and experience a few of the sites and activities that we subject are clients to.

I started the week by heading up to “Yanoda Rainforest Centre” with the rest of the team. This is a commercial privately owned enterprise that takes clients on tours around part of the Hainan rainforest. You would expect the site to utilize natural paths and to minimize development - but this is China. The Yanoda setup has completely missed the point of ecotourism. Everywhere you look swathes of rainforest have been cleared to make way for restaurants, shops, toilets, shower blocks etc. Concrete paths and roads network the site intensively, effectively bisecting the forest in many places. In fact there were many signs of soil erosion due to the loss of foliage and the large quantity of concrete covered areas (increasing surface runoff). The Yanoda experience felt very “Disney”. Large areas of natural plant growth had also been cleared for the placement of aesthetically pleasing arrangements of Hainan flowers and trees. Amusingly I saw a member of staff selling one of their eco-bags (made from natural biodegradable materials) placed kindly within a very non-biodegradable plastic bag! My advice would be that if you really want to see what the rainforest has to offer then head to a remote village in the hills at the centre of the island and explore it from there. While at Yanoda we did a gorge climb (hiking up a river!) and a rainforest hike. The gorge climb was fun but again the river had been heavily modified to ensure safety measurements – concrete walk ways lie on the banks destroying the habitat many river animals are dependent upon. The hike was a joke due to more concrete paths and strategically placed “endemic” species.

The next day we headed to Hou Hai beach to receive training in surf tuition by the boss of Surfing Hainan – Brendan. This was pretty fun. After being trained up by Brendan we had a bit of free time so I headed off to get a decent picture of one the ghost crabs. Another activity we undertake at the beach besides teaching students to surf is raft building. Aaron showed us where our raft materials are kept and how to tie clove hitches. With my new found knowledge I can build a fairly sturdy raft provided the right equipment (i.e. bamboo poles, barrels, rope etc). After building a raft we all headed to Hou Hai dock where we took a small boat to our snorkeling site, unfortunately we didn’t go in as the swell was picking up and water visibility was poor. The dock itself was very interesting and lent an insight to the local fisherman. The majority of fishing vessels are approximately 10 m in length and have a powerful light array at the prow. I am told that these lights attract insects at the fishing grounds (probably reefs) which in turn attract reef fish that are the captured via nets. These fisherman are therefore only active at night.

On Wednesday we had a day off. I decided to go for a 45 minute run with Ben in the morning and then headed to Dadonghai (nearest town) to use the internet. After this I walked the length of Dadonghai beach, combing the beach for shells. Not before long I was nearing the end of the beach and was surprised upon looking up from my activity to find myself amongst the nudist section! I beat a hasty retreat. Back at the house I met up with Wade and headed to the Police Station with Kay and Laura so we could register our arrival at Hainan (standard protocol for long term visitors).

Friday consisted of a visit to an isolated rural school 2 hours from where we live. The roads to the school were extremely windy and pretty tough going on the minibus – at one point we got stuck. I dutifully got out with Wade and pushed the vehicle free with a coating of mud as a reward! Once at the school we were disappointed to see that the kids had a day off. We were visiting the school as a potential site for some community service project our next group of kids have to undertake. The school itself was in a sorry state, most of the windows had no glass and the classrooms were bare of learning materials. There were too rectangular single story buildings separated by a dusty playground, both buildings were a study of grey. We decided that when we came back we would get our kids (as well ourselves) to paint the English and Chinese alphabet on one building. We would also donate some learning materials such as exercise books, posters and stationary. We left the site and had lunch at the local village, where strangely we had to buy the food ourselves after which it was then cooked for us! The village kids loved seeing a bunch of foreigners in town and we kept them laughing by speaking to them in our very basic Chinese! After lunch we tried to scout a hike route but turned rounded after 5 minutes due to massive amounts of hungry leeches. I found a river alongside which I saw many fascinating butterflies and damselflies. I also spied a man electrofishing along the river! On the way home the minibus got stuck again and I got more muddy…

At the weekend I worked for Brendan helping some Chinese and Russian clients to surf at Hou Hai. Ended the day with a fireside barbecue – Brendan sang some songs and played the guitar. Looking forward to our 1st group of kids.