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to the End of the Earth It is not every morning that we can travel to the End of the Earth. So we thought when we travelled in a local bus, 30 kilometers to "The End of the Sky and the Corner of the Sea", which is another name of our destination. We had started from Sanya Bay and continued eastwards along the coast on a modern highway. We continued a small gravel road and arrived at our destination. Last year a gigantic peacock, a wonderful piece of garden art, was our welcome. Now the entrance was not so spectacular. A lot of people are coming, most of them in groups, with buses from different parts of China. They are mostly dressed in a Chinese variant of Hawaian style, blue and white. Among the visitors we can also see some beautiful young ladies in bright-coloured clothes. They are from the Li people, together with the Miao, the most well known of the minority people in Hainan. We have seen Li girls in Sanya selling mobile phones, far away from their parent`s homes in agricultural villages in the mountains. A stone in a circle or flowers is in the centre of people`s attention. There is a remarkable Chinese inscription on it: The word of Tianya, which means The Edge of the Sky. There is a constant queue in front of the inscription. Many photographs are taken on people standing in front of the inscription, like in devotion. We are close to the sea. A dreamlike and unique landscape is opening in front of our eyes. Beaches and stones, grinded by waves for thousands of years. Two of the stones attract people`s attention, especially among those young boys and girls who are in love. Once upon a time here a pair of lovers swore fidelity to each other. Two stones in the water are the symbols for that, and this is a place of pilgrimage for lovers. |
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to the historical reality. Long ago, the Emperors of China sent
politically displeasing persons to Hainan, the End of the World and as far as possible from the capital. Here they strolled around in the beautiful tropical nature, looking at the sea and listening to the silence under the palm trees. They knew that they never would be set free again. Five prisoners have got an own memorial place in Haikou, The Temple of Five Officials. We are also visiting the newest museum in Hainan, built in the park of The End of the World, the Sanya Museum of Natural History. It is the largest private museum in China. Here we are studying a lot of paleontological fossils, among them the first flower in the world. A nice and well informed guide is very glad to speak English with us. We are happy to see fossils of eggs from dinosaurs as well as pre-historical animals. We get lessons in the evolutionary stages, thinking of Charles Darwin. We are passing dioramas with landscapes and animals in a fantastic trip through millions of years. That is great. A modern, dramatical and exciting museum! During the continued walk through the tropical park, we meet a richness of tropical vegetation with texts in Latin, Chinese and English. Solveig, my wife, has discovered a poem on a tablet. We are reading together: The musical sound of the surf accompanies my shadow, the wind from the palm tree blows on me.
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