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Walk on the wild side

By Chen Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-24 17:17

Tropical

Hainan Island is a winter refuge and will be a popular travel destination for the coming Spring Festival holidays. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that hotels will be booked out and there will be hordes of tourists. There is another option: Pass by the golden beaches and head into the wild.

Though half of Hainan’s forest cover was felled to make way for rubber and sugar cane plantations between 1950 and 1980, some of the island’s tropical rainforest remain, in the central highlands, where a rich variety of tropical plants flourish and fauna, such as the endangered Hainan gibbons, can be seen.

Mostly remote and hidden far away from convenient transport links, some of them are actually easy to reach and offer unique natural interests and descent commendations.

Of these areas, Jianfengling Forest Park is recommended. Part of Jianfengling National Nature Reserve, near Jianfengling town, you can get there in about four hours, by bus, from Haikou. It is just two hours away from Sanya.

The park entrance is a 3-km uphill hike from the town center. From here, a well-paved 12-km road winds its way into the heart of the park, passing rubber, sugar cane and tropical fruit plantations run by the Miao and Li minority people.

Another trek worth taking is to Jianfengling Peak, or Pinnacle Peak, which overlooks the town of Jianfengling and can be accessed by a 20-minute bus ride (it takes 50 minutes in a tricycle). It is more than 1,400 m above sea level and comprises a dense forest topped off by a summit that looks like a Gothic church’s dome.

Visitors can scale the peak along a steep stone path. From the park entrance, there is a dirt road leading to a parking lot at the foot of the pinnacle. From the parking lot, at an altitude of 934 m, it takes several hours to reach the top of the summit. Your reward is a truly spectacular view, especially at sunrise or sunset.

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