棋子湾 Qízi Wān is the bay on the west coast of 昌江黎族自治县 Chāngjiāng Lí Zú Zìzhì Xiàn, Changjiang Li Autonomous County, in Hainan’s dry rain-shadow west, and the resort row stands at its southern end in 昌化镇 Chānghuà Zhèn, a few kilometres north-west of the old town of 昌化. The bay runs for more than twenty kilometres through three reaches of pebble and dune, the county’s own phrase is 万亩沙漠落海南, ten thousand mu of desert dropped on Hainan, and the sunsets are what the island’s west coast is known for. The beds are three deep: a 586-room resort opened in June 2016 leads the row, a 310-room rival opened on New Year’s Day 2021 beside the 大角 Dàjiǎo headland, and behind them an apartment-homestay layer rents rooms in a big residential compound from about 130 yuan a night.
The flagship is 海南棋子湾开元度假村 Hǎinán Qízi Wān Kāiyuán Dùjiàcūn, the New Century Resort Hotel Qizi Bay, at 68 广德路 Guǎngdé Lù, and its numbers are the largest in the county: about 110,000 square metres of building, 586 sea-view rooms and suites with five landscape villas, every unit with its own balcony, more than 2,000 restaurant seats, eight meeting rooms around a 1,000-square-metre banquet hall, and 40,000 square metres of outdoor water park – a lazy river, a surf pool, a children’s water fort and a stack of slides – beside a heated infinity pool. It opened in June 2016 as the first Hainan project of the 开元度假村 Kāiyuán Dùjiàcūn resort brand of 开元旅业集团 Kāiyuán Lǚyè Jítuán, the Hangzhou group founded in 1988, with the water park fully open that 22 July; the brand now sits under 德胧集团 Délóng Jítuán on the booking platforms.
On the platforms checked on 30 September 2026 the resort listed from about 658 yuan a night on Ctrip, where it carried a 4.5 across roughly 2,550 reviews and first place on that platform’s Changjiang parent-child hotel list, from 439 on 同程 Tóngchéng, and from about 484 Hong Kong dollars on Trip.com, so the working band is roughly 440 to 660 yuan before holiday surcharges. The review words that repeat are the sunset, the infinity pool and the water park; the five-star labels the sites carry are platform descriptions, not government gradings.
The second hotel is 海南万国棋子湾海滩大酒店 Hǎinán Wànguó Qízi Wān Hǎitān Dàjiǔdiàn at 8 北斗西路 Běidǒu Xī Lù, on the first line beside the 大角 Dàjiǎo headland, 380 metres from 大角公园. It is a 310-room house with some thirty parent-child and couple theme rooms, twenty suites, sea-view bathtubs and private balconies on most rooms, an outdoor infinity pool, a children’s club, KTV, a gym and soaking pools listed free on the facilities sheet. 群升集团 Qúnshēng Jítuán put in close to a billion yuan by its own general manager’s 2021 account, and the opening the news reported was 1 January 2021; a county notice of January 2025 registers the operating company as established on 1 August 2022 – two registers, one hotel, and both are printed here. It rated 4.7 on Meituan and 8.7 out of 10 across 823 Trip.com reviews checked on 30 September 2026, listed from about 357 yuan; the praise is the location, the pool and the bathtub, the complaints the peak-season service and dining. Behind both hotels the 恒大棋子湾 Héngdà Qízi Wān compound rents out one-to-four-bedroom sea-view apartments through dozens of listings, many tagged pet-friendly, some with outdoor pools and kitchens, from about 130 to 400 yuan.
What the Rooms Are Like
A room on 棋子湾 is one of three things. The branded resort room is a tall hotel room with a balcony over the water park or the sea and a kettle; the 万国 room trades the water park for a bathtub facing the sea; and the apartment layer gives you a living room, a kitchen you may cook in and a bedroom or four, at the price of hotel service. The shore itself is pebble, not sand, so pack shoes that take wet stones, and the west-facing side of the row is the side that catches the sunset the bay is known for. The comfortable months are November to March, with February’s kapok season and the summer water park as the two secondary waves; typhoon season runs roughly May to October.
Practicalities
Price. On 30 September 2026 the row quoted like this: the 586-room resort from about 439 to 658 yuan depending on the platform, the 310-room hotel from about 357 and 330 to 450 out of season, and the apartments from about 130 to 400, with named listings between 170 and 373. Both hotels and the apartment listings lift prices sharply over the winter sun season from November to March, the February kapok weeks and the summer school holidays. Every figure here is a snapshot that floats.
Address. The row stands on the shore of 棋子湾 Qízi Wān at 昌化镇 Chānghuà Zhèn, 昌江黎族自治县 Chāngjiāng Lí Zú Zìzhì Xiàn: the 开元 resort at 广德路 68 号 about three kilometres north-west of the town, the 万国 hotel at 北斗西路 8 号, and the apartment compound on 北斗东路 Běidǒu Dōng Lù and 北斗西路 2.3 to 2.7 kilometres from the original tourism zone. 古昌化城遗址, the old Changhua city site, is about 6.6 kilometres away and 峻灵明王庙 Jùnlíng Míngwáng Miào about 6.1, 沙渔塘村 Shāyútáng Cūn about 5.6, the 海尾 Hǎiwěi wetland half an hour by car and 霸王岭 Bàwáng Lǐng about ninety minutes. The county government puts the bay about 50 kilometres from 石碌镇 Shílù Zhèn, an older page says 30, and the mining-town piece carries the argument.
Rooms. Ask which way the balcony faces, because the sunset is the product and the phrase sea view is used loosely on the apartment side. Ask whether a theme room is one of the thirty-odd the 万国 actually runs, and whether the apartment kitchen is equipped enough to cook in. Ask about pets before booking the compound, where the tags are friendly but the buildings are ordinary residential blocks. And ask what happens to your booking in a typhoon, because from May to October the bay can close its water sports while the rooms stay sold.
Getting there. By car the row is reached off the G98 ring motorway at the 太坡 Tàipō or 昌江路口 exit – the opening release put the resort about 240 kilometres from 海口 Hǎikǒu and 260 from 三亚 Sānyà, two and a quarter to nearly three hours. The rail answer is the island’s ring high-speed line to 棋子湾站 Qízi Wān Zhàn, the stop near 道隆村 Dàolóng Cūn in 乌烈镇 Wūliè Zhèn about ten kilometres from the bay, served by some thirty C-numbered trains a day with the fastest run to 海口东 Hǎikǒu Dōng Zhàn at one hour seventeen minutes and second class from 79 yuan on the timetable checked on 30 September 2026; the resort is about 13 kilometres, ten minutes, from the station, and the 万国 hotel runs a daily shuttle.
Where to stay: a sea-view room at 海南棋子湾开元度假村 Hǎinán Qízi Wān Kāiyuán Dùjiàcūn on 广德路 Guǎngdé Lù if you want the water park and the banquet scale, a bathtub room at 海南万国棋子湾海滩大酒店 if you want the first line by 大角 Dàjiǎo, and a one-bedroom apartment in the 恒大棋子湾 Héngdà Qízi Wān compound if you are a family or a dog owner watching the budget, all of them on 棋子湾 Qízi Wān at 昌化镇 Chānghuà Zhèn, 昌江黎族自治县 Chāngjiāng Lí Zú Zìzhì Xiàn. Book the winter sun months early and the summer for the water park.
flowcloud would say that a bay on the island’s dry west coast has ended up with a hotel row bigger than the old town behind it, and that the correct way to sleep here is to pay for the balcony that faces west, because the sunset is free and the water park is not.