Once we arrived at Monkey Island we were told not to eat, drink, or even motion as if you were opening your backpack. The monkeys there are smart and if there is a possibility of being fed they will swarm all over you like fire ants. The island is home to over 2,500 monkeys. The monkeys are used to living around humans and show no fear.

The Sanya area has many attractions. Of them, Monkey Island, is a popular destination. We contemplated whether we should try to arrange our own transportation but then we realized that there are many day tours that visit Monkey Island for very affordable prices.

We paid 120 RMB per person for a day tour that included transportation and admission to a Li and Miao minority village, a couple of visits to craft factories, lunch, and the cable car ride to Monkey Island. Our first stop was to a factory that produces fish liver oil health tablets and dried fish products. On the surface, that sounds like a snoozer. But in actuality, I found it interesting.

The sales demo lady showed us comparisons of shark liver oil to the Alaskan salmon liver oil. They claimed that regularly consuming the oil cleanses the plaque from blood vessels. In one test, the oil was placed into a small styrofoam bowl and then hot water was added. The solution bubbled and in a few seconds ate through the bottom of the bowl. The Alaskan version had only a small bubbling reaction and did not eat through its bowl.

Now I’m not a chemist but I’ll be sure to try to understand the science behind the reaction and see if I can make my own conclusions about its health benefit. The second factory was a metal working place that produces cooking knives, shaving razors, etc.

This stop was popular among the other people in our group since some of the kitchen gadgets seemed pretty neat and useful for Chinese cooking. The next stop was a Li and Miao minority village. Here’s the one negative experience from the day. The village itself was beautifully renovated and landscaped with lush peaceful looking tropical trees. However, from the moment we walked into the place we were being sold this and that. Not allowed to take that picture! 2 RMB if you want to take it! Costumes were aggressively placed on tour members. Then they forcefully wanted us to partake in a traditional wedding ceremony. And guess what? It will cost you 49 RMB.

So we rushed through the tour of the village because at every turn we felt we were being scammed. Even at a small buddhist temple, one fellow tour member noted that the monks asking for donations were fake monks and not local village monks and instead had Zhejiang accents.
 

The village could do much better by allowing visitors to leisurely walk at their own pace and experience the culture as they please. Instead, everything was a either scam, trap, or unauthentic. After lunch, we finally got to ride the cable car over from Hainan Island to Monkey Island. The cable car was thrilling as it floated over the water and up a large hill. The views were fantastic as you could see the open ocean, the main island, and underneath you were the boats and floating houses of the Dan People’s community.

The Dan people have an interesting culture which centers around fishing in the ocean. They also live on boats and houses built in the water.

There are communities of the Dan all over southern China and the one near Sanya is one of the larger ones. Their community looked like an entire town built directly on top of water!

They operate restaurants in their boats and houses and customers are ferried over from shore by boats. Once we arrived at Monkey Island we were told not to eat, drink, or even motion as if you were opening your backpack. The monkeys there are smart and if there is a possibility of being fed they will swarm all over you like fire ants. The island is home to over 2,500 monkeys. The monkeys are used to living around humans and show no fear. You could be walking on a path and then have a family of monkeys walk right by.

There were two different shows we saw. One was the comedy show and the other an acrobat show. Both were extremely entertaining. The acrobat show was especially hilarious because it really showed the agility of these little animals. I’ve always been fascinated by monkeys because they exhibit so many human movements, habits, and emotions.

Later while we were waiting for the cable car ride back, we saw one of the workers feeding the monkeys.

Apparently, in the monkey community there is a hierarchy. The worker would throw the feed out and all the smaller monkeys would scatter and eat. There was on gigantic monkey that slowly would walk over to a rock.

The feeder would just come over and put a handful of food on the rock for him. Its obvious that the big bruiser was the monkey king and got special treatment. Many other tourists who bought the monkey feed would try to feed the little monkeys instead of the bigger ones. The tour guides however would keep telling the tourists not to bother feeding the little ones since they have no rank in the family and just get pushed or beat down as the larger ones would take their food. I thought it was interesting how sophisticated monkey relationships could be. Overall, the trip was entertaining, fascinating, and enjoyable. Monkeys are one of my favorite animals and seeing them up close was a treat. Our next stop is Haikou, the provincial capitol. Stay tuned…