Haitian has always been bucket list destination for me, but it was to be a twist of fate that let me trying street food Haikou, specifically near the airport.
This was because after doing a search cruise on the Nile and a media trip to Rojava I needed to find the cheapest way “home”. Where is home you might ask? I wonder that myself at times, but for all intents and at least for now it is Phnom Penh.
Therefore my cheap flight route had me flying to Abu Dhabi from Erbil then onto Haikou, the capital of Hainan, after which I would continue the adventure.
What the Hainan?
Hainan is huge island off of the coast of “China” that is often called their Hawaii, although this is a bit of stretch. When China was actually communist it was backwater mostly used as prison. Sadly for them they did not get to do a Taiwan although it looked possible for a while.
Haikou is the capital of the island, but not where the beaches are. For that you will need to go to Sanya, which is reachable by many means including train. You can also take a train to the mainland.
Hanging around Haikou Airport
As with any place in China that has big airport, trains station, or the like there is a nearby area that is set up just for those in transit. I have covered this in other articles, such as Street Food Guangzhou Airport, but I actually think street food Haikou Airport might take some beating.
Hotels on the overhand with much less so with my day starting at the Mint Swimming Poll Design Hotel. Alas they did not have a pool, but they did have enough mold to give and cure disease.
Street Food Haikou Airport
After reaching an unbearable level of hunger I went out armed with only my poster senses. This told me to avoid the main street, namely Zhenxing Road, home of the worst hotel in the area.
I duly headed down a backstreet where every second shop was Chinese Kou Rou, or BBQ, but with a very fishy flair. The one I picked was because it had people and clear prices. The people trick I find usually works, but adding me as a foreigner merely made it busier..
I went for huge quid at about $3, two different sized oysters at $1 and $2 – the second if which was the giblets I’ve seen and a ,iced array of a while, but small fish, shrimp, clams and one lamb meat dish. In actuality the meat looked great, but I was all about seafood today.
Street Food Haikou Aport – The best seafood in China?
OK, so I will not say this is the best seafood in China, nor even Hainan, BUT in my experience it is in the backroads, such as un Dandong that you find the real gems. I would imagine Sanya os great, but overpriced and touristy.
The prtices around the street food Haikou Airport area were reasonable, at least by modern standards. I started with the squid which was not rubbery at all and almost melted off of the stick. They did not use much spice, probably because I am foreign and it worked great.
Next up were the other other seafoods, with the fish being surprisingly good and the shrimp cooked to perfection. The clams were as I have had them in Yangshuo and had a lot of garlic.
A lot of garlic you say? Well the small oyster that was huge came with the big oyster that was gigantic and both were cooked. This was my fault, but ot worked out well as while I don’t usually like these both again melted in my mouth alongside the huge potion of garlic.
And for drinks? Soy milk and almost a litre of PBR 0 do not tell me I don’t know how to party.
So while I did not head to the beach, nor explore much the street food Haikou airport scene itself justified the price if the flight and the while detour.