1. Keeping on walking... Whether parks, old town lanes, or just plain old streets, they all feed the pedometer and the camera.





















2. Watching Haikou prepare for CNY.





3. Finding a really nice coffee place -- but on our penultimate day... Wherever we are, we try to cultivate a coffee place (or two). Sometimes you just need to be able to read in a different environment. Or you crave the kind of coffee you can't usually find in hotels. Up until the final Saturday, although we'd had coffee in several places, nothing had really clicked. Then we found Ma Bookshop. Books, coffee, waffles, stuff, and a lovely, restful atmosphere. We even found a Lonely Planet New Zealand.



4. Checking out the Xiuying Battery. This is a gun emplacement, built in the 1890s to ward off the French. It offers a very satisfactory bit of exploring, as you can not only clamber down into the cannon chambers and grope your way around the various living and storage quarters, but also enjoy the calm greenery of the surrounding garden. We also attempted to get to the tomb of Hai Rui, but this, alas, is closed for renovation, so pictures over the wall were the best we could do.



















5. Visiting the National Institute for South China Sea Studies. This was a very illuminating afternoon, and I'm hugely grateful to the staff for the time they gave me.





So... Last day in Haikou. There's still a food post to come, but now is a good time to say how much I've enjoyed being here. I find it an immensely livable city, and would gladly return. (And I'll miss the Golden Heights bears.)