Shimei Bay, Wanning
The first thing that is different is that nobody is selling you anything. Six kilometres of white sand, a shallow shelf of water going from pale green to blue in about twenty metres, and behind it not a strip of high-rise hotels and touts but a forest — an old coastal forest, dark and low and continuous, running the whole length of the bay like a wall. There is a hotel on the sand and another one further along, and between them and behind them there is almost nothing that was not already there. That is the entire proposition of 石梅湾 and it is worth a good deal of driving to get to.
石梅湾 (Shíméi Wān) — Shimei Bay — is on the east coast of Hainan in 万宁, at 礼纪镇, roughly halfway between Haikou and Sanya. It is not where people go on their first trip to the island. It is where they go on their third, or where they go when they have worked out that the Sanya resort strips are a very expensive way to sit in a line of other people’s balconies.
The Forest Is the Point
Everyone talks about the sand, and the sand is good, but the thing that makes this bay different is the 青皮林 (qīngpílín) — the stand of 青皮 trees, Vatica mangachapoi, that covers several thousand mu of the strip immediately behind the beach and steps down almost to the waterline.
青皮 is a hardwood of the lowland tropics, and this is one of the very few surviving stretches of it on the island — a coastal forest that was never cleared, now protected. Walk into it and the temperature drops several degrees in about thirty steps. The trunks are pale and straight, the canopy closes over, and the ground is sandy and clean because almost nothing else grows underneath. From the water it reads as a solid dark band, and from inside it you can hear the sea and see nothing of it.
It also explains why the bay has been kept sparse. Once you have a protected forest running the length of a beach, you cannot build a Sanya on it. The development that has happened — 华润, the state developer, has been the driving force behind the whole bay since the 2000s — has been pushed into 九里, the low-rise residential and hotel zone at the northern end, and into a second cluster around the boat harbour. The rest is forest and sand.
What the Beds Are
There are four tiers here and the gap between them is unusually wide.
The five-star resorts. Two of them, and both are genuinely good. 海南石梅湾艾美度假酒店 (Le Méridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa) sits on 石梅湾旅游度假区 with its own stretch of the beach, a spa, a kids’ club and a long low profile that keeps out of the forest’s way. 石梅湾威斯汀度假酒店 (The Westin Shimei Bay Resort) is at 石梅湾滨海路 01, with a private beach, an indoor and outdoor pool, tennis, a beach bar and a great many rooms with direct sea views. Both are family resorts that behave like family resorts, which means breakfast is a production and the pool is loud by ten. Off-peak, rooms run ¥800–1,200; over Chinese New Year, National Day and the spring break, ¥1,200–1,800 and climbing, with the suites at the deep end going a great deal higher than that.
The 九里 apartments. 华润’s residential blocks a few hundred metres back, rented out short-term — 公寓式酒店 in the local phrase. One or two bedrooms, a kitchen, often a pool in the compound, a proper balcony, and a ten-minute walk to the sand. Around ¥400–600, and for a family staying a week this is the correct answer: you cook your own breakfast, you park for free, and you are not paying resort rates to sleep somewhere you do not spend the day.
The near-bay minsu. Small conversions in 乌石村 and along the 环岛旅游公路 — Moroccan-styled courtyard places, surf villas, whitewashed two-storey buildings with a rooftop. ¥180–350, sometimes more for the carefully designed ones, and five minutes’ drive to the beach. If you have come for the water rather than the hotel, this is where the value is.
Wanning town and 兴隆. Chain hotels in the city at ¥150–280, or guesthouses in 兴隆, twenty minutes inland, at ¥200–400, with far more to eat within walking distance. Both are perfectly sensible if you have a car.
What There Is to Do, Which Is Not Much, Which Is Fine
Swim and do nothing. The bay faces east, so it is a sunrise beach rather than a sunset one, and the water is calm for most of the year. The sand is fine and white and the shelf is shallow — good for children.
凤凰九里书屋. A bookshop on the sand, open 09:00–21:00, free, floor-to-ceiling glass onto the water, coffee, and a postmark service so you can send a postcard from the bay. It is a designed thing and it knows it, but a bookshop facing open sea at four in the afternoon is a hard thing to be cynical about.
观海亭. A free lookout on the headland with the whole crescent laid out below and 加井岛 off to one side. Best at the ends of the day.
加井岛. The uninhabited island out in the bay — clear water, decent snorkelling, and reachable by boat from the harbour. Go with a licensed operator; the cheap beach touts are cheap for a reason.
Drive. The 环岛旅游公路 runs the coast here, and this is one of the best stretches of it. Rent an electric scooter for ¥40–80 a day, or drive: 日月湾, the island’s surf town, is twenty minutes north; 兴隆热带植物园, with its cocoa and coffee and vanilla, is about half an hour inland; 神州半岛 and 山钦湾 are the next bays up and down.
Practicalities
Price. 石梅湾威斯汀 and 海南石梅湾艾美 run about ¥800–1,200 a night off-peak and ¥1,200–1,800 in peak season, with the top suites far above that. The 九里 apartments are ¥400–600; near-bay minsu in 乌石村 and along the 环岛旅游公路 ¥180–350; chain hotels in Wanning town ¥150–280; 兴隆 guesthouses ¥200–400. Budget roughly ¥700–1,300 a head for two days and one night including food and transport, most of it accommodation.
Address. 石梅湾旅游度假区, 礼纪镇 (Lǐjì Zhèn), 万宁市 (Wànníng), Hainan. The Westin is at 石梅湾滨海路 01; Le Méridien is signed off the estate road inside the resort area; the 九里 blocks sit on 海田路 and 兴梅大道 behind the beach.
Rooms. The two resorts hold kings, twins and family rooms plus a villa category, nearly all with sea or garden views and balconies; the 九里 apartments are one and two bedrooms with a kitchen, a living room and a compound pool; the minsu are small — two to four rooms, often with a roof terrace and an outdoor shower.
Getting there. High-speed rail to 神州站 (the closest, 15–20 minutes by taxi, ¥25–40) or 万宁站 (about 30 minutes). By car, the G98 ring expressway’s 石梅湾 exit puts you on the bay road; 1.5 hours from Sanya and 2 hours from Haikou, and there are no tolls on Hainan’s expressways. Public parking is at the P1 visitor centre, ¥3 for two hours and ¥30 a day, with a free shuttle to the beach; hotel guests park free. Electric scooters rent for ¥40–80 a day along the bay road.
What It Refuses to Be
It refuses to be a destination. There is no pedestrian street, no duty-free mall, no night market worth the name, and after ten at night the bay is dark and quiet and the most interesting thing happening is the sea. People who need a promenade will be bored within a day.
It refuses to be cheap at the top. The two resorts charge what they charge and do not discount much in season.
And it refuses to be convenient without a car. The bus from Wanning runs, but infrequently; taxis are scarce; nothing on the bay is more than ten minutes from anything else, which is a short drive and a long walk.
The Name of the Place
石梅 Shíméi is “stone plum”, and the local explanation is a rock formation on the headland that looked like a plum. 万宁 Wànníng is the city, whose name means “ten thousand peaceful” — 万 wàn, ten thousand, 宁 níng, peace. 礼纪 Lǐjì is the township. And 青皮 qīngpí, “green skin”, is the tree: the name describes what the bark looks like before it weathers pale.
flowcloud would say that the best thing about a bay nobody has built on is not the emptiness but the forest, because a forest that close to the water is a promise that the emptiness is going to last.
Where to stay: 石梅湾 (Shíméi Wān, Shimei Bay), 礼纪镇, 万宁市 (Wànníng), east Hainan — six kilometres of white sand backed by protected 青皮林 coastal forest. 海南石梅湾艾美度假酒店 (Le Méridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa), 石梅湾旅游度假区, tel 0898-62528888, and 石梅湾威斯汀度假酒店 (The Westin Shimei Bay Resort), 石梅湾滨海路 01, tel 0898-36222222 — five-star beachfront, private beach, spa and kids’ club, about ¥800–1,200 off-peak and ¥1,200–1,800 in peak season. 九里 apartments (华润 development) about ¥400–600 with a kitchen and a pool; near-bay minsu in 乌石村 and along the 环岛旅游公路 about ¥180–350; Wanning town chains ¥150–280. Free: the beach, 观海亭 lookout and 凤凰九里书屋 (09:00–21:00). Also on the bay: 加井岛 for snorkelling, 华润游艇会 for boat trips, and a free shuttle from the P1 visitor car park. Getting there: high-speed rail to 神州站, then 15–20 minutes by taxi (about ¥25–40), or to 万宁站 and 30 minutes by taxi; 1.5 hours by car from Sanya and 2 hours from Haikou on the G98 ring expressway, 石梅湾 exit. Public parking at P1 is ¥3 for two hours, capped at ¥30 a day; the nearest good breakfast is a bowl of 后安粉 in Wanning.
We are still eating our way through Shimei Bay, Wanning. Guides are on the way.