A forigner in HaiNan

A golden morning

Now to Sanya Bay. From my balcony, I can see that the sun has started to glimmer on the water on the other side of the street. A highway of light is opened from the beach over to the small islands some kilometres away. The sand along Sanya Bay lies bare by the ebb. I am running northwards on the packed damp sand, a perfect track for a barefoot runner. Time is 7.15, in the morning. It is mid November. Outside the waterway of light a group of swimmers are training long-distance swimming in the tropical warm water.

People are collecting beautiful shells on the beach. I arrange a picture of shells meeting the sun and the sea. Between the street and the beach, lines of beautiful cocopalms provide shadow, even if the brilliant sunshine is finding ways through the crowns of the trees.

I say Ni-hao to the moving people along the beach and they answer Hello. There is a smiling, intuitive communication with only one or two words. Young girls and boys are jogging to the school. The say Hello, how are You? My name is...What is Your name? The English language is growing very fast in Chinese schools.

This is a very, very Chinese beach. Many of the visitors are tourists from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and so on. Others are fishermen and people from Sanya city on the other side of the street. They used to come here in the morning, on their way to work. There is no commerce, except from some women selling pearls.

It is very colourful and fascinating to study the Chinese psysical culture, gymnastics and dancing. Women and men in a group are flourishing swords with red banderoles in perfect rhytmhic. Another group is dancing with sunfans. When the dancers suddenly open them, all at the same time, it smalls very high. Subsequently, the dans continues. That is a richly coloured type of exercise. Some young girls move rackets rhytmically, keeping tennis balls on the rackets without loosing them. The cooperation in every group along the beach is perfect.

My jogging along Sanya Bay provides experience of many different ways of physcical training, interesting, charming and healthy. There are training programs for everyone, from children to the old. There is also music for dancing, in pairs. I start dancing with an old woman in my own age. People around us enjoyed it very much.

In the shadow, an old music teacher is learning how to play an very old string instrument. Some people are standing in the waterfront with their faces against the sea - singing a song I don't understand. However, I feel that express happiness, a song to celebrate life. Some people around is deep into meditation or yoga.