A City Hotel in Nada, Danzhou’s Market Town

那大 Nàdà is the city centre of 儋州市 Dānzhōu shì, an ordinary working town of markets, bus stations, noodle shops and traffic, and a city hotel here is a well-run four-storey building on a main street with a lobby, a breakfast room and rooms that are clean and unremarkable. It is not a stay anyone would travel for, and that is its use: 那大 is where the transport is, where the 米烂 is best in the morning, and where you sleep when you are using the city as a base for the salt fields, the academy and the springs rather than as a destination.

The town is the administrative and commercial centre of a large agricultural city, and it behaves like one. The 那大 morning market is the best in the west of the island for produce and dried fish, the streets around it fill early with breakfast stalls, and the town has the bus and rail connections that the coast villages do not. It is not beautiful and it does not pretend to be; what it has is the food, the transport and a plain, functioning kind of comfort, and after a day on the salt pans or in the hills that is exactly what a traveller wants.

The hotels are the standard Chinese provincial sort, and the better ones are good value. Expect a lobby with a front desk that takes foreign passports, a lift, a breakfast room serving congee, noodles and buns from seven, and rooms that are a little larger than they need to be with a firm bed, good air conditioning and a decent shower. Many have a restaurant and a small meeting room, some have parking, and the price is a fraction of what the same standard costs in 三亚. Ask for a room away from the street if you sleep lightly, because the town is up early.

The reason to base here rather than on the coast is the food and the road. A bowl of 米烂 from a stall before seven, a walk through the market while the fish is still coming in, and then the day out: the 东坡书院 and the 千年古盐田 to the west, the 石花水洞 and the hot springs to the south-east, the 松涛水库 to the south, each within an hour or two. In the evening the town has the 儋州 restaurants, where 洛基粽, 东坡绵蹄 and the west coast’s fish and dried fish are all on the menu. Two nights as a base works well, and it costs very little to add a third.

What the Rooms Are Like

Expect a room of twenty-five to thirty-five square metres, a firm bed, good air conditioning, a clean en-suite bathroom with a shower, and often a small desk and a window over the street. The finish is plain and well maintained rather than stylish. Ask for a room on a high floor and away from the road, and confirm that the hotel accepts foreign guests, which most in the city centre now do.

Practicalities

Price. A double in a 那大 city hotel runs ¥150 to ¥400 a night in the shoulder season, and more over the October week and Chinese New Year. Breakfast is usually included and the higher floors cost a little more.

Address. The hotel is in the centre of 那大 Nàdà, the seat of 儋州市, convenient for the market, the bus station and the road out of town. The nearest high-speed rail stop is 白马井站 Báimǎjǐng zhàn on the west ring line, about forty minutes from 海口东.

Rooms. Ask for a high floor away from the street and confirm that breakfast is included. Check whether the hotel has parking if you are driving, and ask the desk to write the name of the 米烂 street in Chinese for the taxi you take at six in the morning.

Getting there. From 白马井站 a taxi to 那大 takes about forty minutes; the west ring high-speed line runs from 海口东 in about forty minutes and from 三亚 in about an hour and a half. The town is small enough to walk for food, and a car or a taxi is needed for the day trips out.

Where to stay: the city hotels in the centre of 那大, 儋州市, within walking distance of the morning market and the 米烂 shops. Take a high floor away from the road, base here for the salt fields and the academy, and eat breakfast on the street rather than in the hotel if you can.

flowcloud would say that a market town with no scenery to sell and no beach to offer, which nevertheless gets travellers up at six for a bowl of noodles and sends them out in four directions by nine, has quietly understood that the best base is not the prettiest place but the one that works.