It's a very short hop from Hong Kong to Haikou, on China's Hainan Island. The same misty, drizzly, grubby weather has been blanketing both.

No problems with the journey. But it seems we have booked ourselves into a geriatric facility...

We did know that Golden Heights, located via Ctrip, attracts some of its clientele from the pool of patients being treated at the many, many nearby hospitals. But I hadn't realized it would lean quite so far in that direction...

They don't take international credit cards, and the kerfuffle this caused gave me ample time to view the video endlessly looping at reception. It featured old people. Lots of them. Celebrating a birthday with cake and bonhomie. Having a singsong. Being helped to sit at the table by means of a wheeled dining chair.

The same company apparently runs "eldergartens" in Haikou and Beijing.

Our room has good, solid, grandma-and-granddad armchairs, emergency call buttons everywhere, and a huge, walk-in shower, with a fold-down seat and grab rails...

During our first breakfast, I surveyed the patrons. There were a few casuals, of mixed ages, but most of our fellow-guests would have been alive before the communist revolution of 1949. They would have experienced the cultural revolution... What a pity my Chinese doesn't go much further than "two of those, please" and "how do we wash clothes?" (We discovered, on the second day, that if they have enough casuals, they segregate them off. Pity. I would rather breakfast with the oldies than with a pack of businessmen.)

Slightly strange though the arrangement is, the place has its merits. The room is very spacious. It's quiet. It has cheap laundry facilities. We're on Haidian Island, with Hainan University just down the road, so the neighbourhood is full of simple places selling cheap but tasty food, and little shops offering all the necessities of daily life (plus lots and lots of coconut products -- they don't call it the Coconut City for nothing...). The streets are tree-lined, and the vibe is busy but not manic. You can easily walk to Baishamen Park, or to the historic heart of the city just across the river.

So, though this must be our weirdest lodging since the love hotel in Osaka, we're planning on staying here for the rest of our time in Haikou.

It will be a great place to get lots of work done.