im reich der mitte links unten - china through my eyes

Done

2009-09-13T00:20:00.001+08:00

back home, enjoying Austria.

Zhongguo, baibai!!
:-)

thanks for visiting my blog!

Impressions from Macau

2009-09-12T23:49:00.009+08:00

Portuguese food, Portuguese architecture, casinos, and two tired Austrians.

Impressions from Hongkong

2009-09-12T23:49:00.003+08:00

Before going back to Austria, I spent one more weekend in Hongkong (and Macau) with Bianca from Honduras and Kathi from Austria.

Last stop on mainland China: Guangzhou

2009-09-12T23:47:00.001+08:00

I met up with Wang Pi and Li Liren, also in order to pick up my stuff. 6 bags. To take to Hongkong. In German we would say: Selbst schuld, kein Mitleid.

@ Wangwang's

2009-09-12T23:41:00.007+08:00

My last stop in Nanchang: at my friend Wangwang's who I met in Vienna, too. It was great to experience so much hospitality in Nanchang!

hairdresser...

2009-09-12T23:41:00.004+08:00

i went there for a relaxing head massage. what i got was too much attention from the entire staff, which resulted in conversations, picture taking and the like. china is really good for my chinese. the relaxing part...well...

In Nanchang with Yu Yun

2009-09-12T23:31:00.004+08:00

having lunch at her grandparents', shopping and dinner. good times!

Nanchang friends...

2009-09-12T23:31:00.001+08:00

Duan Lingyi, her cute daughter and my friend who I met in Austria, Yu Yun

a home cooked meal :-)

2009-09-12T23:27:00.000+08:00

Nanchang - revolutionary sights

2009-09-12T22:11:00.006+08:00

Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, is famous for its revolutionary history. My friends there took me for a sightseeing tour.

bus station with flat screen... nothing special.

2009-09-12T22:11:00.002+08:00

Qinghua

2009-09-12T22:11:00.001+08:00

a woman with bound feet

2009-09-12T22:05:00.003+08:00

also, the film crew interviewed the last woman with bound feet in this litte village... she didn't really seem to appreciate the attention, but i don't know if she had a choice.

village life

2009-09-12T22:01:00.001+08:00

More local food

2009-09-08T06:43:00.001+08:00

Also, I was invited to try my luck with making very special local dumplings... once the film crew was done and the dumplings ready to be eaten part of the village came to enjoy this special treat.

our lunch

2009-09-08T06:40:00.003+08:00

Also, the film crew invited me to lunch - as their special guest - with a bunch of more or less important locals (like the teacher, the mayor,...).
Picture me, sitting there with men only, following the Chinese tradition of emptying the glass with each of them... phew. Thank God we're used to drinking beer in Austria...

Dofu

2009-09-08T06:37:00.001+08:00

My lucky day

2009-09-08T06:33:00.002+08:00

After meeting really nice locals along the road I was very lucky in the next village, too. I bumped into a film crew, and they took me along to learn about and taste (!) local delicacies... A fun experience!

Nice people I met along the road...

2009-09-08T06:29:00.002+08:00

Locals from a tiny village close to Qinghua...

More Wuyuan Countryside

2009-09-08T05:44:00.001+08:00

Wuyuan countryside

2009-08-17T19:02:00.000+08:00

Dalikeng in Jiangxi

2009-08-17T18:19:00.002+08:00

My time in the Wuyuan Area in Jiangxi was quite an experience - hourlong hikes through the countryside, visits to little villages and many many nice people.

typisch China

2009-08-17T18:17:00.001+08:00

white socks in black shoes.

Shanghai

2009-08-17T18:08:00.002+08:00

Alva :-)

2009-08-17T18:05:00.002+08:00

In Shaoxing I met up with my dear friend Alva who I met back in 2005 when I first went to China.

trainrides and trainstations

2009-08-17T17:59:00.000+08:00

Shaoxing

2009-08-15T23:57:00.001+08:00

Total Solar Eclipse

2009-08-13T23:42:00.002+08:00

We were really lucky with our itinerary and timing as we got to see the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century - in Shaoxing. Quite an experience!

First stop: Guangzhou

2009-08-13T22:33:00.002+08:00

Valerie and I left Hainan Island for a short trip on the mainland.
First stop: Guangzhou with Li Liren and Dim Sum

more good-byes

2009-08-13T22:26:00.000+08:00

more good-byes

2009-08-13T22:08:00.002+08:00

Random places in Haikou

2009-08-13T21:37:00.002+08:00

our visit to the haidresser, the tailor and the like...

bye-bye coconut breeze

2009-08-10T21:13:00.001+08:00

letztes mal am strand...

Tourist trip to the Jade Belt

2009-08-10T21:07:00.003+08:00

Shortly before leaving Bo'ao Xiaosu took Valerie and me once more to the famous Jade Belt and also to the Inauguration Sight for the BFA...

another last lunch

2009-07-29T01:53:00.002+08:00

this time at my "chinese mum's" - that's what the dongbei lady calls herself. she was always really good to me, and our last lunch there was a feast. so were the good-bye jiaozi we had there two days later (after already having had dinner and yet qingbuliang to follow).

sunrise

2009-07-29T01:50:00.001+08:00

we tried to see the sunrise, a thing i had wanted to do ever since i arrived in bo'ao, but it always just seemed too early to get up. well, we weren't really lucky, as it was a cloudy day. but breakfast was good.

interview at the golf course

2009-07-29T01:45:00.001+08:00

bo'ao's number of golf courses is increasing almost annually. as i interviewed one of the lawn managers (is that the correct translation? i had never heard of that job before...) i got to see one f the older ones. and the surroundings.

dinner at xiulan's

2009-07-29T01:38:00.002+08:00

the last few days in bo'ao consisted of eating, interviewing, trying to find people i could interview, and good-byes.
valerie and i had a lovely hainanese dinner at our friend xiulan's.

good-bye breakfast

2009-07-24T05:30:00.003+08:00

with chinese and italian friends. originally we wanted to do a picnic on the beach. well, the downpour kinda ruined that plan...

my favorite cake

2009-07-24T05:28:00.001+08:00

valerie liked it, too.

my students in qionghai

2009-07-24T05:27:00.001+08:00

as some of you might know, during my stay in the qionghai area i had a teaching job in a local english school which was good fun!

good times

2009-07-24T05:22:00.002+08:00

after introducing chaobing to valerie (and vice-versa) thomas, valerie and i enjoyed a fun night out in town with marco (from switzerland), his girlfriend and their chinese friend mario.

haikou through valerie's lense!

2009-07-24T05:18:00.003+08:00

last but one time in haikou

2009-07-24T05:02:00.001+08:00

before picking up valerie i started my good-byes in haikou - a stroll through the evergreen park, coffee with my friend jane (and her boyfriend's relatives) and lunch with liu laoshi, one of my teachers from back then.

Old Mao and liquor

2009-07-09T04:37:00.001+08:00

a short tea break in one of the local restaurants that opened just recently. is that why the kitchen is so clean?

the seaport in tanmen

2009-07-09T04:36:00.002+08:00

seafood lunch

2009-07-09T04:32:00.001+08:00

after checking out the seaport and the shell carving factory we had our own share of sea products: a lovely seafood lunch in the shade.

a factory

2009-07-09T04:31:00.001+08:00

tanmen is famous for its shell products. before having lunch we took a detour to have a look at one of the factories.

impressions from a fishing port

2009-07-09T04:28:00.003+08:00

a happy reunion

2009-07-09T04:26:00.002+08:00

my teacher (the man in the middle) met up with an old friend from school whom he hadn't seen for quite a while. picture taking followed (all men except for the japanese student on the left are qionghai locals thus speak hainanese...ting bu dong.).

on our way to tanmen

2009-07-09T04:25:00.002+08:00

my chinese teacher took us to tanmen the other day. tanmen is a fishing port about 8km away from bo'ao. here two pics i took on our way there, one of them featuring a typical coffee/tea house sceen on hainan island.

independence day celebrations

2009-07-09T04:21:00.001+08:00

@ elizabeth's, including fireworks, apple pie, strawberry and mango margaritas. good times!

seafood dinner with friends

2009-07-09T04:17:00.005+08:00

i'm well aware of the fact that i always post pictures that feature food. for a reason. pretty much all the social activities in bo'ao involve eating. no matter what time of the day (or night).
that day XiaoSu invited some friends over to her dorm to have an amazing seafood dinner. yummie!!! our cook (the guy with the shrimp) did a really good job.

faking class

2009-07-09T04:09:00.001+08:00

last month i had some private chinese lessons in qionghai (the teacher is the chinese man in the middle). as my teacher is going to retire soon, he asked us to pose for a group (teaching) picture.

my favorite spot for reading

2009-07-09T04:06:00.006+08:00

ok, these pics are not spectacular. but they feature my favorite spot for reading a book after 6pm when the sun is slowly going down.

catching crabs on the jade belt

2009-07-04T01:59:00.001+08:00

my new friends from zhongxin took me along to catch crabs on the jade belt, the sand strip that separates the rivers from the sea. we went there by boat and set out with flashlights and bags. on our way back to the boat we came across some local fishermen and bought some of their fish and crabs. the kind of fish we had is called "boao yu" (boao fish), and is famous because the fish(es) live in both sea and fresh water. later we devoured our catch in a local "restaurant" on the street. a feast.

post-interview night snack

2009-07-04T01:53:00.001+08:00

after watching "nanjing nanjing" with the staff of zhongxin (a state-owned real estate company here) and interviewing the girl on the picture we set out to have a midnight snack in "downtown" bo'ao. yummy!

breakfast in bo'ao

2009-06-29T19:32:00.003+08:00

i like hainanese breakfast, haha. here some pics i took while experiencing bo'ao's breakfast culture...

more visitors from haikou

2009-06-29T19:29:00.001+08:00

later on saturday i had a different group of friends over from haikou. we went to jiaji (qionghai) to first have dinner in a seafood restaurant (i wanted to show you the ambiance... tom & jerry on flatscreens all over the place, shiny decoration, etc), and later we had coffee and finally ended the evening with chaobing and qingbuliang. stuffed. but it was fun!

friends over for a visit

2009-06-29T19:27:00.002+08:00

on saturday i had some friends from haikou over for a visit - hong and soniya! elizabeth took us to the dale watertown restaurant on the wanquan river. good food, good company.

more chinglish for you (and me)

2009-06-29T19:24:00.002+08:00

please, protect the circumstances!!!

nanqiang village

2009-06-28T20:18:00.003+08:00

one of the villages i visited was nanqiang village, a showcase village for democracy and law - whatever that's supposed to mean. but maybe that's why they have concrete paths instead of gravel paths like in most other villages? anyway, it's good to know that "the villagers have a happy life today", as the board with the information about the well informs us. the chinese characters on the house mean sth like "both boys and girls mean hope for our people". i was told that in hainan the boy-girl ratio is the worst in the country, and slogans like that can be found all over the province.

there's a lot of constructing going on in bo'ao, and real estate prices are rising constantly. soon, 9 more villages will be demolished, and their inhabitants will have to move to a different part of town. the villagers have mixed feelings about this. as they'll lose their land most of the villagers will have to find a job in the third industry.

bo'ao's primary school

2009-06-28T20:13:00.001+08:00

more bo'ao

2009-06-28T18:54:00.003+08:00

my stay in bo'ao is slowly coming to an end... therefore i try to take more pictures of everyday things and the countryside. that day i headed out in the early morning to ride my bike to the villages outside of town. i like the fact that they use the bo'ao decoration banners for their fields.

canal village

2009-06-28T03:37:00.002+08:00

in bo'ao more and more hotels are being built. here one of the "older" ones, canal village, managed by kempinski. seems quite empty most of the time.

bo'ao's street life

2009-06-28T03:32:00.001+08:00

i think i've mentioned before that hainanese men spend their days drinking tea in the local tea shops all day long. well, not quite. they take breaks whenever they have to get a proper meal, so at lunch and dinner times. sometimes i join them for their afternoon or evening tea (or coffee) sessions to get to know more about life in bo'ao. women are rarely seen there...except for the waitresses.

too much sun for the shop

2009-06-28T03:29:00.003+08:00

have i mentioned that it's freakin' hot here these days? well, even the shop entrance has to be protected from the sun...

breakfast

2009-06-28T03:25:00.001+08:00

my landlady took me to a rather big tea house in qionghai the other day to have interesting hainanese breakfast. she almost made me eat chicken feet. i refused politely.

visitor from qionghai

2009-06-28T03:21:00.001+08:00

Ye, one of the english teachers at "my" english school, came to visit me in bo'ao the other day...these days it's terribly hot here, around 36 degrees centigrade, humidity around 85%. ufff.

view from our rooftop

2009-06-28T03:11:00.001+08:00

the best place to hang out your laundry or have a cigarette in the dark: our rooftop. here the view from up there...among other buildings you can see the local middle school where the students have class until 21.30pm...

walk in the gulou area

2009-06-21T04:58:00.002+08:00

christine and i spent my last afternoon in beijing with a walk in the gulou area, eating famous yoghurt.

cantonese food and chinese-german entertainment

2009-06-21T04:55:00.001+08:00

after dining in a cantonese restaurant with great food we checked out a german-chinese music night, hosted by the Goetheinstitut in beijing. well... i guess it catered to chinese taste more than it catered to ours...

the art district

2009-06-21T04:51:00.003+08:00

on sunday, yet another sunny day in beijing, we went for a relaxing walk and so-so coffee in 798, the art district.

qipao party and sanlitun

2009-06-21T04:49:00.002+08:00

saturday night was spent partying in beijing. first we attended a qipao party, organized by christine's friends, and later the four austrians had a good time in sanlitun :-)

back in the valley

2009-06-21T04:46:00.001+08:00

after making our way down again we had a very tasty lunch and headed back to beijing.

climbing the great wall

2009-06-21T04:43:00.002+08:00

the next morning after breakfast we hiked up to the great wall (takes about 50 minutes and it's a quite steep ascent). once on top we tried to make our way up to the next few towers. it was extremely quiet up there. what a great experience!

the great wall at sancha

2009-06-21T04:40:00.002+08:00

on friday christine, stephan, mauricio and i went to sancha in order to climb the great wall the day after. the wall close to the remote village has not (yet?) been restored, and it was a great opportunity for us to experience the countryside around beijing. a local farmer offers transportation to and from the closest town, lodging and food (great fish!) and we enjoyed our stay a lot. here some pics of our evening and morning in sancha.

on our way to and in the old summer palace

2009-06-17T00:36:00.002+08:00

beijing has many faces. a metro ride or a turn around the corner might take you to a totally different beijing. donkeys haul bricks and tourists meander around in the old summer palace.

sanlitun & julie contemplating the world

2009-06-16T18:52:00.002+08:00

china shows its modern face in sanlitun, a hip area for shopping and partying. after checking out the apple store there i went to visit julie (we studied together in haikou two years ago) :-)

temple of heaven

2009-06-16T18:49:00.000+08:00

i spent the last five days in beijing, visiting christine. it was great to be in a big city with a lot going on! here some impressions from the temple of heaven where christine, stephan and i did some sightseeing on my first day there.

no xinqi, no fruit market

2009-06-16T17:51:00.002+08:00

the hainan university has undergone quite some change in the last few years, also because other schools have been incorporated and thus more teaching and housing facilities are being required. now even the xinqi coffee shop, one of THE places where many exchange students used to study back in 2006/07, and also the fruit market have been closed down. the latter moved to a different area.

luggage

2009-06-16T17:47:00.001+08:00

not everybody brings a suitcase or a backpack from qionghai to haikou... there are other options as well.

but compared to the flock of goats that was "stored" down there two years ago when arnhilt and i took a bus to sanya i think this is animal-friendly.

Qiongju - Hainan opera

2009-06-10T04:23:00.000+08:00

While Beijing Opera is the most famous kind of Chinese opera, there are numerous local operas to be discovered and enjoyed (?). I normally enjoy them for about 10 minutes, as I like their dresses and makeup. But after that I find the music a bit unnerving...
The audience consists of mostly old people who all gather with their stools and chairs to enjoy the play. There's no entrance fee, and i like the fact that it's for the common people, out on the street.

another walk through town

2009-06-10T04:20:00.002+08:00

bo'ao is different from many other small towns in china. it's clean. it's quiet. there are many many dust bins. and the houses look nice.
or so you might think strolling around on the main street.
once off the beaten track bo'ao might still be a quiet little place, but not that clean or developed... does that surprise us?

of pandas and construction sites

2009-06-09T02:07:00.003+08:00

i don't like rainy days in bo'ao. not only because they are not really flipflop friendly (extremely slippery!!), but also because i don't have any windows without this panda pattern (and i have to close the windows in order to avoid my room being flooded again).
also, i want to show you my view. i feel bad for the construction workers next door. but using manpower instead of machines makes their work less noisy which i appreciate. nevertheless i have my daily 6 o'clock wake-up call.

feeding children (part II)

2009-06-09T02:07:00.001+08:00

i tried to do some more research on chinese feeding methods. well, and my latest theory is that it's less about the kids wanting to run around than about the feeding mums or grandmas wanting to get their exercise. why so? because those cuties who can't ran around yet are being carried around, holding them and the bowl with rice/porridge in one hand while spoon feeding them with the other hand. so picture a chinese woman walking down the road while feeding the baby, and maybe - maybe - even exchanging the latest gossip with other chinese hanging out outside. impressive, huh?

Sanya and Qionghai with Niki

2009-06-08T04:27:00.001+08:00

Niki's time in Hainan was short, but we still made the trek to Sanya. Unfortunately it started raining just as we got off the eastern expressway. But Yalong Bay is even nice when it rains. The next day we went back to Qionghai where we realized that there's really not much to do for (non-Chinese) tourists.
Well, you can have coffee in one of the local coffee shops, and Chaobing, and Lamian, but that's about it. In the evening we went to have shaokao (BBQ) with friends from Qionghai.

"concert"

2009-06-08T04:24:00.001+08:00

the mayor invited me to a "concert" - that was at least the chinese term used for it - on the evening of the dragon boat festival. niki from gramastetten/shanghai was here for the weekend, too, and we both didn't really get what the concert was about. apparently the local government had invited some boao people and a few vips to attend a kind of talk show about the last 10 years of pop music on hainan island. everybody in the audience got fluorescent sticks to play with, and nobody seemed to pay attention to what was going on on stage. mhm. we left early.

dragon boat festival

2009-06-08T04:17:00.004+08:00

the 28th of may was a big day for and in bo'ao, as it hosted dragon boat races in order to celebrate the dragon boat festival, the duanwu jie which is being celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar.
if you wanna know more about the background of the festival, here's some useful information: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-06/21/content_359372.htm
anyway, i got to try several different kinds of zhongzi (pyramid-shaped dumplings made of glutious rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves), the lady from the dongbei restaurant gave me sweet ones and two other friends gave me salty ones to try...they spoil me here!

also, i include pictures of the races (and the audience). the guy giving a speech is the mayor whom i was introduced to the other day. two nights with beer in a local beer garden followed, haha. bo'ao had a very nice feel to it that day, there were lots of tiny food stalls with traditional food on the main street, the locals where out and about to celebrate, and the center of bo'ao was turned into a pedestrian area.

in the kindergarten

2009-06-03T22:30:00.001+08:00

my friend xiu lan from the dongbei restaurant took me to the kindergarten last week to attend a show featuring lots of cute kids dancing, and also teachers and mums performing, haha. here three impressions...

Chasing kids with a spoon full of rice

2009-06-03T22:29:00.000+08:00

I saw it again yesterday, while riding the bus to Bo’ao. Judith had pointed it out to me back in Haikou, and it’s so true: Chinese mums and grandmas chase their small kids with a spoon full of rice in one hand and a bowl of rice in the other. No matter if the kid is playing on the floor, chasing animals, undressing itself or making a mess with whatever it can find, if it's time to eat you can be sure that there’s a mother or grandmother somewhere behind the child trying to push some rice into the child’s mouth. I’ve seen children being chased across the street, the grandma following the kid with each single step, trying to catch up and once caught up trying to get the child to eat yet another spoon full of rice. At least the moms and grandmas get their exercise. And the children learn to multitask.
Does it surprise us now that there are no children’s seats in restaurants or houses?

celebrating my landlady's birthday

2009-05-24T23:36:00.002+08:00

My landlady celebrated her birthday the other day - and bought a big cake to celebrate the occasion. I would describe Chinese cake as 30-40% sponge cake plus 70-60% whipped something. Egg-white and sugar, I assume. I like the decoration (animals,...) more than the taste.
Anyway, the bearded man is my landlord, the woman next to him another tenant, and the lady in the other picture is my landlady, trying to eat the sugary pig.

Jiaozi

2009-05-24T23:33:00.001+08:00

Hanging out with the Dongbei People and watching them make tasty Jiaozi - dumplings with various fillings, to be frozen and lateron steamed when ordered.

Hainanese coffee to go

2009-05-24T23:32:00.001+08:00

I remember getting myself a coffee to go while wandering the streets in Washington DC last year...and tried to do the same in Qionghai after an exhausting Chinese lesson. Well, I got my coffee (iced). In a huge something I would not call a cup but rather say it was a bowl for take-out. I didn't feel nearly as cool walking down the road as I might have with a more starbucky thing in my hand (and a size I could actually hold with only one hand), but the situation made me smile and take a picture once I was home.

A little something about Hainanese coffee. Hainanese coffee is dark. Like black. Black black black. No matter how much milk you add, it's still gonna be very black. It has a very distinct taste and I believe that it's low on caffeine. Thomas told me today that an Australian coffee farmer said that Hainanese coffee is so different from the one we are used to because it's being stored for about six months before being roasted, thus getting mouldy or dirty...(I really don't even wanna know all the details). Well, I believe it's still drinkable, and I use to get my iced cup of black coffee (black, coz if I say I want one with milk it's gonna be mixed with a ridiculous amount of condensed milk) in one of the local coffee shops that would be crowded with Hainanese men both in the mornings and afternoons.

US-American girls in town

2009-05-24T22:58:00.000+08:00

Elizabeth introduced me to two guests who stayed at her Inn, two girls from the Midwest. I took them to have Chaobing and Chinese breakfast at the market. I think they really loved the Chaobing, but maybe were not so sure that Hainanese coffee, Baozi and Youtiao are a good way to start your day.

in Xiu Lan's village

2009-05-24T22:50:00.003+08:00

As Xiu Lan and her (husband's) family have - just as many other families in the village - moved to new houses, the older houses are either empty or in use as pigsties or storerooms.
There's one really old, huge tree in the village, many visitors come to pay their respect to the gods there.
I really liked walking around there, and it felt good to have a local with me... that made me feel a little less like a tourist i guess.
One picture features a group of really old women playing cards. I don't know if it's mainly a Hainanese thing or a Chinese thing in general: playing cards or Chinese chess, with a lot of money involved. It seemes to be an obsession, just like the lottery. Everybody talks about it, everybody does it.

impressions from a hainanese home

2009-05-24T22:38:00.005+08:00

Xiu Lan (she works in the dongbei restaurant) took me to her home the other day to show me around and spoil me with fruit freshly picked in her yard. Xiu Lan lives in one of the villages close to bo'ao. here some impressions from her house.
i was shocked to see that even the youngest kids already get ranked in school (for instance, her son is third in his class).
to have a huge tv set with massive speakers is a very common thing here, no matter if a family is rich or rather poor.
take a close look at the one picture of pictures taken of a couple - can you see the traditional (alpine) costume the guy wears, and the mountainous background chosen? i think it's hilarious. but wouldn't we central europeans maybe choose palm trees?

thanks, walter!

2009-05-24T22:28:00.000+08:00

the chinese have blocked my blog, or so at least i assume. that has happened in 2006, too, but back then i was at least able to edit the blog (though not able to actually read it, haha). anyway, apparently hainan province or the prc don't like blogger.com these days...
anyway, walter offered to upload my new posts as long as i can't access my blog. thanks!!!

Catching our dinner

2009-05-24T22:23:00.003+08:00

I'd say it's a great snack: crunchy fried crabs with a lot of chilly and ginger.
the other day we set out to catch our dinner on the beach, equipped with a shovel, flashlights and a bucket. we would dig our dinner up, grab it and throw it into the bucket. my task was to hold the bucket, haha. later, the poor guys were fried and devoured :)

Lotus and the creature Ao

2009-05-24T21:06:00.005+08:00

The garden around the temple was quite impressive and very well kept. Also, it featured a statue of the creature Ao, the second character of the town's name BoAo. Here's the story about it:

The Legend of Boao
Long ago in Chinese legend, the youngest daughter of the Dragon King -- Ao Qin of the South China Sea, gave birth to a son named Ao. Although its birth was accompanied by a splendid chance for prosperity, Ao looked strange with a dragon's head, tortoise's back and kylin's tail.
This strange looking creature made the Dragon King angry and he wanted Ao and his mother to leave the island. The King blocked their return to the South China Sea by laying his jade belt across the entrance. This belt turned into the Jade Belt Beach that lies in front of Sofitel Boao today.
Having failed to persuade her father the Dragon King to accept Ao, the heartbroken daughter dragon changed herself into a mountain now called Longtan Ridge. Shocked at the loss of his mother, Ao was so angry that he busied himself by causing great hardship to the people living on Boao.
Hearing the news, the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, came to the island and after 72 battles subdued Ao, and transformed him into a dragon. Ao's original body, a turtle with a dragon's head, then became Dongyu Island, the site of Sofitel Boao. Aerial photographs of the island show it is shaped like a turtle. While it sounds like a tale from Middle Earth, whether true or not Boao is a remarkable yet sleepy corner of Hainan.
The monk of Tang Dynasty, Huai Ren said, "Who subdued Ao became a Saint, who obtained Ao became a wise man."
(Source: CRIENGLISH.com, copied from http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/07/content_7935684.htm)