In 1995, Tongzha was voted China’s “most liveable” city and it does live up to the accolade. This is a lovely place to spend a couple of days just wandering and exploring. The city itself is small and the streets and markets can be covered on foot in under 30 minutes. Tongzha’s charming public square is a great place to see some of the more unusual minority groups going about their everyday life and a day trip to the nearby mountains and countryside will really let you get to the heart of things here. Before 1997, the local government here ran things in a pretty corrupt manner. Luxury goods were imported on the cheap from Hong Kong and Vietnam and the flamboyant Qiongzhou University building was built in the center of the town. Beijing soon caught on to what was going on and put a stop to these indulgences, much to the disgust of the local minorities and residents here.

How to get there:
Tongzha is linked to the two biggest cities in Hainan: Haikou(223 KM) to the north and Sanya(88 KM) to the south, by the Haikou-Sanya highway. Buses run daily from Sanya and Haikou to Tongzha and back, and the journey from Haikou takes about 5 hours. From Sanya, the trip can be done in 2 hours.