dolevr
Registered
It took me some 3.5 years of living and diving in China to get myself dwn to Hainan.
For those of you that can not place Hainan on the map - it is the big Island to the south of China.
Hainan is considered (rightfully so) to be the Thailand of China, and to justify this Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Marriot, Sheraton ... all have come here.
So far for the environs .. now for diving.
I arrived Sanya on some business issues and expected a "close to" Thailand experience.
It is not.
For the Hainan diving industry guys everyone is basically a first time diver. Chinese (as I said above) seem to believe that Hainan is the Chinese equivalent of Thailand or the Great Barrier Reef and indeed they do advertise it as such. The advertisements are blatant lies featuring crystal clear waters with pasted in tropical creatures.
Well, of course, I was not interested in an introductory dive but I saw on the price board that they had deep diving.
Nonetheless, I was in Hainan with a group of work coleagues and escorted them off to the place where thsi is done.
If you have been (once in your life) to a factory assembly line (imagine Fort model-T factory) this is what they have there. Groups of tourists (mostly Chinese) arrive there and pay 500 RMB (about $60USD) per head for the chance to be dragged 50 meters from the rocky shore in an old wet suit, no fins, and be pushed under water to see nothing.
Okay, I thought, I'll go for the deep dive, this might be better. I asked if it was a boat dive and they replied in the affirmative. Turns out it was a 2-minute boat trip over to a platform just offshore. The maximum depth turned out to be 12 meters and I went along with this because from what little I could see underwater (absolutely maximum viz was 2 meters) below 12 meters was just sand.
Above 12 meters were a few dead lumps of coral with heavy algal growth. Fish life was sparse.
There is no discount for using your own equipment. The rental equipment is no-name brands and I mean this literally. I could not find a brand name on the BCDs, wetsuits, or regs. Also you will need to add on a few sizes to what you would normally wear. E.g., I usually use a Scubapro BCD size L but in Hainan I used an XL and it was too small.
As for other diving, I was told Yalong Bay was better but after going there I could see that Yalong Bay was more of the same. I eyeballed the situation there and asked where the boat was going to. The guide pointed to a nearby island. Maximum depth was to be 12 meters again. No thanks.
Dolevr
For those of you that can not place Hainan on the map - it is the big Island to the south of China.
Hainan is considered (rightfully so) to be the Thailand of China, and to justify this Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Marriot, Sheraton ... all have come here.
So far for the environs .. now for diving.
I arrived Sanya on some business issues and expected a "close to" Thailand experience.
It is not.
For the Hainan diving industry guys everyone is basically a first time diver. Chinese (as I said above) seem to believe that Hainan is the Chinese equivalent of Thailand or the Great Barrier Reef and indeed they do advertise it as such. The advertisements are blatant lies featuring crystal clear waters with pasted in tropical creatures.
Well, of course, I was not interested in an introductory dive but I saw on the price board that they had deep diving.
Nonetheless, I was in Hainan with a group of work coleagues and escorted them off to the place where thsi is done.
If you have been (once in your life) to a factory assembly line (imagine Fort model-T factory) this is what they have there. Groups of tourists (mostly Chinese) arrive there and pay 500 RMB (about $60USD) per head for the chance to be dragged 50 meters from the rocky shore in an old wet suit, no fins, and be pushed under water to see nothing.
Okay, I thought, I'll go for the deep dive, this might be better. I asked if it was a boat dive and they replied in the affirmative. Turns out it was a 2-minute boat trip over to a platform just offshore. The maximum depth turned out to be 12 meters and I went along with this because from what little I could see underwater (absolutely maximum viz was 2 meters) below 12 meters was just sand.
Above 12 meters were a few dead lumps of coral with heavy algal growth. Fish life was sparse.
There is no discount for using your own equipment. The rental equipment is no-name brands and I mean this literally. I could not find a brand name on the BCDs, wetsuits, or regs. Also you will need to add on a few sizes to what you would normally wear. E.g., I usually use a Scubapro BCD size L but in Hainan I used an XL and it was too small.
As for other diving, I was told Yalong Bay was better but after going there I could see that Yalong Bay was more of the same. I eyeballed the situation there and asked where the boat was going to. The guide pointed to a nearby island. Maximum depth was to be 12 meters again. No thanks.
Dolevr
