:: Latest ASK replies

Thanks for your suggestion. WOS will provide a collective link later that lists the current movies and times at the theater in Sanya.

Like you say, that's what you guess. In actual fact, it's not true (depending on how you define many). What's more, a lot of these tourists are unattractive foreigners.

Your assumption implies that (a) A large number of girls in Xiamen go to university over there and (b) that good universities actually teach students to speak English. Sadly, even the best universities in China only teach students to pass exams like CET or TEM, with many of those passing even the harderst exams still speaking Chinglish and having rather low listening comprehension skills.

many english-speaking girls there I guess, since many are tourists..

More xiamen girls speak English i guess, since we have better universities:)

Well, the pawn is the weakest piece on the chess board, so I'm not a good chess player-enthusiastic, yes; good, no. Some people play because they love winning, while others do so because they love chess; I'm one of the latter.

I never thought of Eng corners as a place to date-maybe it's something to think about-but I don't want to be guilty of turning Eng corners into dating corners.

When it comes to learning languages, there doesn't appear to be a direct correlation between love for chess and becoming multilingual. Even the best player in history, Bobby Fischer, couldn't speak any Japanese (despite the fact that he lived there for years and even had a Japanese wife). Mandarin is a language I've given up on and nothing would convince me to come out of retirement, so to speak, when it comes to learning, what I consider to be, the hardest language on the planet.

Perhaps dating on the beach in Sanya (for yours truly) remains but a dream.

CP,
An unsolicited suggestion: perhaps attending a few 'sessions' at one of the two or three 'revolving' English Corners in Sanya, provided you have the time and the patience, may address most of your 'requirements':
- meet English speaking ladies: the attendees are mostly young, eager to learn (English!) and openminded.
- (in a few weeks you will) find one or two people you (may be able to) get along with
- ask for help to learn (some) Mandarin Chinese. You most likely already know a little and, assuming you are a good chess player (Chesspawn?), your mind should be primed to learn quickly. It will do you no harm to know the language, particularly if you live and/or work in Sanya.
- (you will) help them improve their English, so this will make you feel good.

The downside: you may lose a little of your (precious) time.

The upside: you may (indirectly) meet your criteria for 'dating on the beach'!

Cheers,
G.M.

(no, CP, it's not 'Grand Master' but Greem Mountain = Vermont)

The difference depends on what angle you view it from. The above mentioned aspects may be factual, but could go unnoticed by people like yours truly.

Differences I noticed are:

Xiamen's advatages over Sanya-

1) Xiamen's drivers are better than Sanya's, especially because they don't hoot all the time.

2) There are hardly any annoying motorcyclists in Xiamen.

3) The living cost in Xiamen's lower than in Sanya.

4) Xiamen's busses aren't as crowded as the ones in Sanya.

5) The universities in Xiamen are better than Sanya's.


Sanya's advantages over Xiamen-

1) The girls in Sanya are more beautiful.

2) Sanya has a beach in the form of Yalong, where the water's clean enough to swim in.

3) There's no winter in Sanya.

4) There's a wider variety of fruit available in Sanya.

What a load of rubbish! To start with, the range from 1-10 is meaningless. Adding "at least" to that makes it even more absurd-at least what: 1, 2, 5, 10? What's more, not everbody is capable of learning a tonal language, like Chinese. It's the same nonsense in Thailand-when you're there, they expect you to learn their language; in Israel they want you to speak Hebrew, Koreans assume every foreigner over there speaks Korean and the French are no different either (although French is an easier language for a westerner to learn). English is the main international language and it was hard enough for me to learn that. Expecting that people would learn all the languages of every country they live in is nothing short of fantasy. Saying that they could learn at least 10 SENTENCES in every lesson is totally off the wall (not everybody's a Daniel Tammett). Perhaps in the 1st few lessons, the highly talented may learn 10 sentences, but learning would slow down with time, as it does with anything. At the start, when one's knowledge is 0, statistical graphs make progress appear to be enourmous, but for all practical purposes the knowledge & skills gained at the very beginning are not worth much on their own.

or start to learn Chinese? let's say for each lesson you get to speak 1~10 sentences at least?

On line and face-to-face translation/teaching are both available.

Gotcha. Perhaps try the English corners? I went to one on Sunday afternoon a few months back.It was inside a restaurant on Jie Fang Road.You can learn some basic Chinese and chat with English speaking Chinese people as well.

The problem is that I DON'T speak ANY Chinese (unless you count the only sentence I know, which I've already shown off in the original post). If you've tried with about 10 girls and none of them speaks any English (apart from yes, no, and I don't know), you're starting to lose confidence (or face as they say in China).

Just strike up a conversation in English to start with, as you would in most other countries. If they don't understand you then switch to talking Chinese. If you have less than stellar spoken Chinese skill (as I do), at least you get some practice in. :)

In the Walk Street.

Thanks, tark. We are also told by locals that only one train station in Sanya and take bus No.4 and 10 to get our tickets there to Guangzhou.

I'm told that you depart from Sanya Railway Station (same one you arrived at on the bullet train), passing though Haikou to Guangzhou.

Most hotels can bill visa, I know because I've used mine no worries before. Another method would be to take a travel debit card with you and cash out at an ATM as you need the funds.I do this and it's worked at all Sanya banks except for Everbright and Hainan Bank.

Squid fishing

@super2010
Thanks for your specific advices. I think I would take the option 2 which are more suitable for me. I have to take my driving test again since it has been so long that have not driven. Anyway, safety comes first.