Live Your Best Lives
I love traveling, experiencing different people, events, and things, creating unique memories in my life. When I look back in my old age, I'll think, "Ah, my life was quite interesting," rather than "Nothing special, a lifetime passed in the blink of an eye." What I create is a record of a period of time. Although some details are no longer available, what remains are the most beautiful memories.
This time, we chose Lingshui's Nanwan Monkey Island and Daidai Island for their beautiful beaches, turquoise waters, and marine recreational activities. Once we'd decided on our destination, we booked our tickets and set off!
1. Fly to Haikou Airport or Sanya Phoenix Airport from all over the country, take the high-speed rail from the airport's high-speed rail station to Lingshui Station. From Lingshui High-speed Rail Station, you can take bus No. 80 to Xincun, or take the scenic area bus.
2. Nanwan Monkey Island offers a free shuttle bus service to transport visitors from Lingshui Station on the East Ring High-Speed Railway to the Monkey Island scenic area. This is Hainan's first high-speed rail line seamlessly connecting a scenic area. Visitors who purchase Monkey Island tickets on board the bus will receive a free ride on the scenic area's luxury shuttle.
3. If you are coming from Sanya, you can take Intercity Line 2 directly to the scenic spot ticket hall parking lot.
4. If you drive there, just search for Nanwan Monkey Island on the map.
The location of Nanwan Monkey Island and Daidai Island is called Xincun. It is a small town that has developed due to tourism. There are food and accommodation in the town, and the hotels range from one hundred to several hundred yuan. There are even more food options, including fast food, takeout, hot pot and stir-fried dishes. The prices are not expensive, and you can choose whatever you want.
There is a Tianlang Hotel on Monkey Island that can be booked, and you can also stay in a beach tent. However, for safety reasons, beach tents are not sold separately. At least eight people can sleep in a tent together on the island, but there are packages such as bonfire parties and seafood hot pot.
There are also hotels and guesthouses outside Monkey Island, with different prices. You can choose to book and stay according to your financial situation.
2. The scenic area offers a wide range of high-end, mid-range, and low-end cuisine. Light meals include instant noodles, snacks, and drinks. You can order dishes at the Monkey Island Seaview Restaurant at the entrance to Monkey Island. For dinner, there's a beach seafood hotpot, which can be ordered on-site or online.
Having visited Sanya many times and explored nearly all of its attractions, I decided to visit Nanwan Monkey Island in Lingshui this time. Nestled between mountains and water, and surrounded by the sea on three sides, Nanwan Monkey Island is a narrow and long island nature reserve for macaques in my country and the world. In addition to its nearly 400 species of tropical plants and nearly 100 species of animals, the pristine natural environment and over 2,500 macaques, a nationally protected species of Class II, are currently home to 21 groups of over 1,000 macaques, earning it the nickname "Monkey Island."
To enter Nanwan Monkey Island, you can choose to take a car, boat or cross-sea cable car. Visitors can choose their favorite mode of transportation to the island, and one ticket is valid for both. Of course, visitors can choose two different modes of transportation to go on and off the island.
The most popular way is to take the cable car. The cross-sea high-altitude sightseeing cable car is 2,138 meters long and is the longest cross-sea tourist cable car in the world.
If you choose to take the cross-sea cable car, remember to prepare your camera and mobile phone in advance, because here you can take in the spectacular view of hundreds of "water families" - the Tanka people, and the Xincun Port!
The Xu people are called the gypsies of the sea. The Xu people are not an ethnic group, but a general term for a group of people who are accustomed to living on boats along the southeastern coast of China.
Numerous Xujia fish farms are moored in Monkey Island Harbor. The Xu people use their boats as beds and the water as blankets, fishing exclusively near the coast. At night, the lights on the fish farms light up, adding a touch of warmth to the dark sea.
The cable car ride takes about 6-8 minutes, and each cabin can accommodate 4 tourists. Unlike other scenic spots, this cabin is not enclosed by glass, allowing you to enjoy a 360-degree view of the sea and feel the sea breeze, which is very relaxing.
After coming out of the cable car, you will reach the Monkey Island Scenic Area. Various plants are scattered in an orderly manner. Walking among them, you will feel like you are in a forest park.
There are a lot of monkeys in this area. The keepers feed them with rice, and the monkeys eat a lot. You can also buy monkey food here to feed them. The monkeys will surround you in groups. When feeding the monkeys, you must not be afraid or dodge, because the monkeys will mistakenly think that you are not feeding it and attack you.
If you walk further in, you can see the macaques' bathing resort, which is the Holy Bathing Pool. It is a five-star pool on the island. It is the best place for the monkeys to relax and exercise when the weather is hot. Beach chairs and parasols are available.
Nanwan Monkey Island is a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, so the monkeys on the island are naturally familiar with water. They are proficient in swimming, diving and snorkeling. Diving is their strong point, which can last up to two to three minutes. However, their swimming posture is relatively simple, and they can only do the doggy style.
However, not all monkeys can experience this. They have a strict hierarchy among monkey groups, and only high-ranking macaques have priority in using the sacred bathing pool.
Continuing on, you'll reach the Monkey Island Tour's highest point, the Monkey Viewing Pavilion. Here, you'll see the uniquely iconic Yishuiliu Cave, the former residence of the Monkey King, Monkey Island, and Monkey Fun, all of which are worth taking photos of.
If you hold bananas, peanuts or other food at this moment, monkeys will immediately surround you from all directions, staring at the things in your hands. Some brave monkeys will even jump up and snatch the food from your hands when you are not paying attention.
Visitors throw food to the monkeys, which nimbly catch it. The monkeys devour the food voraciously, filling their two sacs on each chin until they are full. After returning home, they slowly spit it out, chew it thoroughly, and swallow it. Playing with the monkeys is incredibly entertaining, often leaving visitors wanting more.
Another interesting thing about Monkey Island is that there is a monkey confinement room where a monkey is locked up. The staff said that if a monkey makes a mistake and refuses to change after repeated warnings, it will be locked up in a cage and punished.
Monkey Island is not very big and you can walk around it in a short time. Feeding and observing the monkeys will take some time, but it is quite interesting to watch the monkeys' movements slowly.
This is a very suitable place to bring your family and children to play, let the children participate, feed the monkeys, and let the children learn to love animals and live in harmony.
Tips:
1. Don’t wear brightly colored clothes. Female monkeys are very jealous, especially during the estrus period. Especially when wearing red clothes, monkeys are very sensitive to red.
2. Don’t open your bag to take things out in front of a monkey, as it will think you are finding food for it. Don’t leave your bag alone on the ground when taking pictures, as it will open the zipper of your bag and take things out when you are not paying attention.
3. Don’t scare it, yell at it, or look directly at it.
4. Attention, those with children, do not let them interact with monkeys alone. If you feed monkeys, do so with the help of staff.
To go from Monkey Island to Daidai Island, you have to take the scenic area's minibus. In fact, the two islands are connected. The minibus is running on the coastal highway. Looking at the endless sea in the distance, I feel particularly relaxed.
Here, everything is crystal clear and pure, and everything is clear at a glance. No wonder people love it so much, because it is not as complicated and difficult to understand as the human heart.
Daidai Island is the second phase project of the Nanwan Monkey Island Tourist Area. It is a relatively niche attraction in Hainan. It is full of Instagram style and has been completely built into an Internet celebrity resort. It is very suitable for taking pictures. It can be said that this place can satisfy all the fantasies of girls!
To enter Daidai Island, you need to take a bus to the Nanwan Monkey Island ticket office first, where you can buy a separate ticket to Daidai Island. It takes about 2 minutes by boat to reach the island, and then take a sightseeing bus for about 15 minutes to reach Daidai Island, which is known for its colorful beaches.
Daidai Island is very small, with Lover's Cliff on the right and a beach area on the left. It is recommended to go to Lover's Cliff on the right to take in the coastal scenery of Daidai Island first, and then go to the beach to play in the water.
The coastline of Daidai Island is not very long. It takes about 1-2 hours to play it slowly. There are very few tourists on the beach. Apart from the sound of the waves, you can hardly hear any other sounds. It feels like you have accidentally entered a paradise.
The beach of Daidai Island has fine sand and blue water. There are also coconut swings, vintage cars, white churches, ancient fishing boats, etc.
There's also a pristine white church building next to the beach, making it a popular spot for wedding photographers. While Daidai Island isn't large, it offers plenty of photo opportunities, making it a perfect spot to spend an entire afternoon. Even if you're not here for photos, this beautiful beach is perfect for relaxing on a lounge chair, soaking up the sun, and just daydreaming.
In addition to being a place to relax and take beautiful photos, Daidai Island is also a great place for group outings and company team building, as there are many entertainment activities on Boat 2, Boat 3, and Boat 4.
Boat No. 2 has ATV, CS, coconut grove archery and other activities, which are suitable for team and company team building.
Coconut Grove Attack and Defense Archery combines evasive and archery techniques, bringing you back to the days of cold weapons. The tension of a bow and arrow, the sound of an arrow breaking through the wind beside your ear, and the adrenaline rush of shooting an arrow are all part of this exciting and challenging activity.
Boat No. 3 offers tent camping, bonfire parties, private meals, beach music, beach movies, beach barbecues, etc. The 88-person seafood hotpot is also here.
Boat No. 4 features jet skis, watercraft, dynamic flying fish, banana boats, and other non-powered activities. The challenging watercraft activities are a delight for adrenaline junkies. The banana-shaped rubber raft, hence its name, allows passengers to ride on a speedboat at approximately 50 km/h.
Besides scuba diving, I highly recommend the dynamic airship, motorboat, and sea dragon rides. Some of these activities are suitable for children, some for families, and some for groups. The best advice is to go as a group; you can experience every one of them here.
The pristine nature, delicious food, and stunning scenery of Nanwan Monkey Island and Daidai Island will surely haunt me for a long time. It's worth noting that, besides young people, the second-largest group of visitors are elderly people. I hope that when I grow old, I too can enjoy life in this paradise on earth like them.
