Day 7 – Morning of Monday 22 November 2010

The wake-up call came at 7am, but I was already awake at 6.30am so that I could enjoy my spa on the balcony overlooking the rainforest. I took a battery car ride along the rainforest roadways from my Narada Rainforest Resort & Spa villa unit to enjoy the buffet breakfast at the Outdoor Restaurant surrounded by luscious tropical vegetation and water features.

At 8.00am we boarded our mini-bus and departed the Resort, leaving the southern end of Hainan Island and travelling the 285 kilometres to Haikou, the largest city on the Island. Haikou, the “city of coconut palms,” is the Capital city of Haikou Province and lies southwest of Hong Kong on the northern tip of Hainan Island. It is on the west bank of the Nandu River estuary, which is the longest river on the island. The city's name appropriately means 'Mouth of the Sea'. Along the way we drove past many market gardens, tropical fruit orchards, small towns and large developments of many apartments. We had a comfort stop to break the journey at the appropriately named “Easy Joy” petrol station at 9.30am This was the first occasion since I had been in China that I came across Asian style squat toilets.

We arrived at Mission Hills Haikou Resort, 25 kilometres before Haikou, at 12.10pm The Mission Hills Golf Club and Hotel is an exclusive, 20-square kilometre resort complex built on top of an extinct volcano. Each golf course incorporates the original lava rock formations, ancient trees, deep crevices, meandering streams, crystal-clear lakes, and wetlands.  Since 2007 they have turned a waste black lava rock area into the largest Golf Club in the world. It has hosted many international tournaments in golf, tennis, and cycling.

To create the huge golfing complex, they have had to truck in tonnes of soil and sand to cover the bed of ancient lava rock. They have laid 570 kilometres of irrigation pipes and 28,000 kilometres of electrical cables underground, created 7 lakes, retained 20,000 trees and planted 30,000 tropical trees. They have conserved 50 kilometres of serpentine long lava walls and 86 lava caves. 

At present Mission Hills Haikou has six 18-hole championship golf courses with another four under construction. Each has been designed by an international golfing professional and is named after its unique features. One is called “Stone Outback”, and has an Australian sandy desert and black lava rock setting with many Eucalyptus planted to evoke the Australian landscape. When completed, Mission Hills will have 20 golf courses on the one site covering more than 800 acres.

At present the costs to play a round of golf are - green fee $378; caddie fee $31/Golfer; cart fee $31/18Hole; rental clubs$46/Set, shoes $11/Set, umbrella $3, facilities service fee $4/Golfer, insurance $1/Golfer, making it about $A505 for a round of golf.

Nestled amongst the lush green gardens is the 18 storey luxurious resort block, a 9 storey resort annex, a 3 storey clubhouse, shopping arcades, meeting facilities, the Lava Lagoon outdoor theme park, volcanic mineral springs, and a sports and recreation centre. Each of the Resorts 518 guest rooms has unobstructed views of the panoramic golf courses. There are 7 different Restaurants to cater for a wide choice of fine dining. More hotels and amenities are in the construction or planning stage to cater for the increased number of golfers when all 20 courses are completed.

We had lunch at the Magma Café at the Clubhouse at 12.15pm. This was our only non-Chinese Banquet lunch or dinner meal on the China trip. I delighted in selecting my favourite foods from the extensive range buffet of hot and cold dishes available. I must admit I had several servings of sweets.

We then went up to the Grand Ballroom where we were given a short PowerPoint presentation and talk on the development of Mission Hills Golf Club and Hotel complex. A tour of the impressive Golf Clubhouse was next, followed by a ride on golf carts around the Number 1 Golf Course, ‘Blackstone’ to see its manicured lawns, tropical gardens, sand traps, water features and lava rock features. We then went to the Mission Hills Hotel for a tour of its guest rooms.