逃离三亚奢华酒店

休闲与有世界工厂之称的中国毫无关系。因此，打造与巴厘岛(Bali)及普吉岛(Phuket)相媲美的中国热带旅游天堂似乎纯属天方夜谭——但是，这一切都无法阻止北京政府在此方面的努力。去年夏天，中国国务院宣布了吸引更多国际游客到海南旅游的举措，这个位于中国最南端的海岛距离香港只有一个小时航程。中国政府计划把海南打造成“国际旅游岛”，预计至2020年吸引7700万游客到访，目前每年只有2500万游客（绝大部分是国内游客）。

此次我与一位同事同行去的海南，第一印象很不错。从博鳌（Boao，我在那儿参加一个会议）到三亚（Sanya，海南最主要的旅游目的地），坐的是新开通的、时速达250公里的高铁。铁路两旁翠绿的水稻田（在印度喀拉拉邦(Kerala)与巴厘岛均司空见惯）一闪而过。湛蓝的天空晴空万里；海南是个以农业与旅游为主的省份，所以并未遭到污染，而中国大部分地区都深受污染之害。

把我们从车站送到新开发的海棠湾(Haitang Bay)豪华酒店区的的哥兴致勃勃地说：三月底在康莱德酒店(Conrad)举办了一场中国版的皇家婚礼。

一位漂亮的台湾偶像明星与她的大陆企业家新郎邀请了200位嘉宾参加婚宴，包下了康莱德酒店以及紧挨着的希尔顿逸林酒店(DoubletreeHilton)，逸林酒店是康莱德酒店的姐妹酒店，但价位略低于后者。无疑，造访海南的魅力之一就是耳闻与目睹中国的财富新贵们如何一掷千金地消费。就在我到达三亚的那天早上，我遇见的一位高尔夫球场经理告诉我，来自山西的六位煤老板每位都包租了一个月的酒店豪华套间——而且付的是一袋袋的现款。

康莱德酒店虽说去年十二月才刚开业，但已经成为业界的翘楚，因为它是海南唯一以别墅式为主的酒店，但仍显得百象待新。

走在酒店的草坪上，感觉草就是从脚底下长出来的。标准化的喷嘴朝各个方向喷水，四处可见穿绿色衬衣的园艺工人。星期天一大早，我拉开房间的窗帘时，看见三个工人正在室外开挖巨大的花床。然而，大自然自有其天时。酒店内种的许许多多棕榈树，蔫得就象被雷击过似的，浇再多的水也无济于事。

但我压根没料到酒店的所属海滩（说荒芜也不为过）会有这样的规定。全亚洲这么多度假酒店的海滩，数这儿最让人恶心。我设法沿着海滩的陡坡漫步，没想到两位酒店员工快步跑过来，阻止我下海。他们对我说，此处海潮太大，一直就不允许客人下海游泳。

而且若要使用酒店的泳池，还得先签下免责书，内容如下：“若因酒店方（三亚海棠湾康莱德酒店(Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay)）以及员工因采取相应行动（包括疏忽大意），对本人造成受伤或损失，特此申明：免除其相应责任或免于索赔……”

禁止游客下海游泳，到康莱德酒店浅浅的泳池游泳生死得自负，以及酒店内犹如当年农村公社时无休止的劳动，都让人觉得此处非休闲之地，酒店的建筑也是现代仿制版的罗马别墅与西班牙庄园。

服务员长得一表人才算是酒店的最大亮点。不到一天，客人就能叫出好多服务员的名字——贾迈尔(Jamel)、维维安(Vivian)以及梅西(Messi)。梅西？那位服务员决定取自己最喜爱的球星作为自己的洋名。

酒店也不乏奢侈的地方。夜床服务包括为客人打开广播电台，播放“Dream Land” CD专辑中《欢乐满人间》(“Mary PoppinsMedley”)这类歌。克莱德曼之类(Clayderman-esque)的音乐在印度与中国的豪华酒店里无处不在，但在康莱德酒店，通过藏在灌木丛中的扬声器，四处都在播莫扎克音乐(muzak)。酒店外，其它在建豪华酒店的工地，破坏了整个区域的景致——其中就有喜达屋连锁酒店(StarwoodLuxuryCollection)与凯宾斯基(Kempinski)旗下的在建酒店。虽然建了这么多的酒店，海棠湾以及三亚还是缺少上档次的餐馆。停留期间，我脑海里想起了琼?狄迪恩(joan didion)写的《绝望的海岸》(“The Seacoast ofDespair”)一文，它记述了20世纪初美国大亨们在罗得岛(RhodeIsland)兴建的诸多豪宅，兴建这些19世纪末避暑庄园的钱财也是来自经营铁路与开挖煤矿，成了各种建筑风格的大杂烩，看上去不伦不类。“空气中弥漫的东西与欢愉毫不沾边……不是让人感到花钱的优雅感，而是让人联想到挣钱的粗鄙，”她在文章中这样写道。

当你身处三亚豪华的海滨度假酒店，心里却想着马尔代夫兰达吉拉瓦鲁岛上的四季酒店(Four Seasons on LandaaGiraavaru in the Maldives)与巴厘岛库塔海滩的奥博瑞酒店(Oberoi on Kutabeach)这些亚洲海滨酒店时，就知道自己该是走为上策。我提前半天办理了离店手续，为的就是有时间能去附近亚龙湾(YalongBay)醉人的白色沙滩去游泳（那儿允许下海）。亚龙湾到处都是酒店，其中就有康莱德旗下的酒店，价位低一些，但设计得更为惬意。

诸位若是非得去海棠湾玩，不妨再等上一阵子。一位热心的康莱德酒店员工对我们说，“政府已经承诺明年着手解决海潮问题”。“政府打算拦住海潮吗？”我的同事用普通话问道，话语中带着置疑的口气。但我们还真是平生第一遭听到这么说。“政府会解决海潮问题，它太过汹涌了，”该员工说道。

中国政府若是真能驯服海棠湾的潮汐，再加盖一些上档次的饭店，添置一些自动取款机，或许有朝一日海南真能赶超巴厘岛与普吉岛，成为真正的度假天堂。

拉胡尔?雅各布是《金融时报》驻华南记者，著有《通行权：从布鲁克林到巴厘岛》(‘Right of Passage: Travels from Brooklyn to Bali’)，由Picador出版社出版发行。

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酒店详情：

在三亚海棠湾康莱德酒店，花园朝向、带跌水潭的单卧房别墅每晚起价3400元人民币（约520美元，含税），外送两份早餐以及免费使用客房内的冰箱酒柜。更划算的是入住康莱德的姐妹酒店三亚亚龙湾的希尔顿度假酒店及水疗中心（Hilton Sanya Resort &Spa，网址：www.hilton.co.uk/sanya）。纵览大海胜景的客房起步价为每晚1900元（约290美元，含早餐）。中国多家航空公司有北京、上海、广州直飞三亚的航班。海南航空公司(HainanAirlines)有从香港直飞三亚的航班。更多关于三亚的旅游信息，请参阅网址：www.freesanya.com。

Leisure is not something weassociate with China, the factory of the world. So a Made in Chinatropical paradise to rival Bali or Phuket may seem wildly improbable –but that is not going to stop Beijing from trying to create one. Lastsummer, China’s state council said it planned to attract many moreinternational visitors to Hainan, the island off its southern tip, justan hour by air from Hong Kong. The government’s plan for an“international tourism island” forecasts 77m visitors a year by 2020, upfrom 25m (overwhelmingly domestic) tourists today.

Travelling with a colleague to Hainan, our first impressions werepleasing. The new high-speed train from Boao, where I had been attendinga conference, to Sanya, the main tourist destination, clipped along atup to 250km per hour. Verdant paddy fields that would not have lookedout of place in Kerala or Bali flashed by. The sky was apostcard-perfect blue; Hainan has been spared the pollution that hangsover much of China because it is primarily an agricultural andtourism-oriented province.

The taxi driver who drove us from the station to the new strip ofluxury hotel developments in Haitang Bay spoke happily about China’sequivalent of a royal wedding, which took place in late March at ourhotel, the Conrad.

A beautiful Taiwanese pop singer and her Chinese entrepreneurbridegroom took over the Conrad, and its less expensive sister hotel,the Doubletree Hilton next door, for celebrations with 200 guests.Indeed, one of the charms of visiting Hainan is to hear about – andwitness – China’s new rich spending their wealth with abandon. On themorning I arrived, I met the manager of a golf resort who told me thatsix coal mine owners from Shanxi had each rented luxury hotel suites fora month – and paid their bills with bags of cash.

The Conrad, which opened in December,has already achieved a stately pre-eminence because it is the onlypredominantly villa property in Hainan, but it still feels very new.

Walking on the lawns, you feel as though the grass is actuallygrowing under your feet. Industrial-sized sprinklers spin at everycorner and an army of green-shirted gardeners is always in evidence.When I drew the curtains of my room early on Sunday, three men weredigging up what looked like a giant flower-bed just outside. Nature hasits own timetable, however. The hotel has a phalanx of petrified palmsthat look like they were struck by lightning and no amount of waterseems able to restore them.

But nothing prepared me for the hotel’s private – which is to saydesolate – beach. If there is a nastier beach at a resort in Asia, Ihave not seen it. I tried to jog along its steep inclines, only for twostaff members to sprint towards me to forbid me from entering the water.The tides here were too strong, they said. Guests are never allowed toswim off the beach.

And before using the hotel pool I signed a disclaimer that read: “Ido also hereby release all of those mentioned (the Conrad Sanya HaitangBay) and any other actions upon their behalf from any responsibility orliability for any injury or damage to myself, including those caused bythe negligent act or omission of any of those mentioned ... ”.

The prohibition from swimming in the sea, the sense of taking yourlife into your hands to enter the Conrad’s shallow pools and theceaseless activity of an agricultural commune make the hotel less thanrelaxing. The architecture is a modernised pastiche of Roman villa meetsSpanish hacienda.

The charming staff are thebest thing about this hotel. Within a day, you begin to know many byname – Jamel, Vivian and Messi. Messi? The bellboy had decided hiswestern name should be that of his favourite footballer.

There are occasional excesses. Turn-down service included switchingon a radio channel playing a “Dream Land” CD with songs such as the“Mary Poppins Medley”. Clayderman-esque anthems are ubiquitous in theluxury hotels of India and China, but at the Conrad the muzak followsyou everywhere from speakers hidden in the shrubbery. Beyond thegrounds, vast building sites for other luxury hotels blight the area –properties of the Starwood Luxury Collection and the Kempinski, amongothers. Despite the new openings, Haitang Bay and Sanya still lack goodrestaurants. During my stay here I was reminded often of “The Seacoastof Despair”, an essay by Joan Didion about the mansions built by early20th-century American magnates in Rhode Island. Those fin-de-sièclesummer homes were built by fortunes also made from railroads andcoal-mining and were an unseemly medley of architectural styles. “Thereis something in the air that has nothing to do with pleasure ... a sensenot of how prettily money can be spent but of how harshly money ismade,” she wrote.

When you find yourself sitting at a luxury beach resort pining forother seaside hotels in Asia such as the Four Seasons on LandaaGiraavaru in the Maldives or the Oberoi on Kuta beach in Bali, it istime to cut your losses. I checked out half a day early so that I hadenough time to swim off the stunning white sand beach in nearby YalongBay, where bathing is allowed. This bay is already dotted with hotels,including a less expensive and much better-designed sister property ofthe Conrad.

If you must visit Haitang Bay, wait a while before you go. An earneststaff member at the Conrad told us that “the government has promised tofix the problem” of the tides by next year. “Are they going to turnback the tide?” my colleague asked incredulously, in Mandarin. But wehad heard right the first time. “Our government will solve the tideproblem. It is very powerful,” she said.

If the Chinese government can conquerthe tides in Haitang Bay, and add a dozen good restaurants and a fewATMs, perhaps Hainan will one day surpass Bali and Phuket as a resortparadise.

Rahul Jacob is the FT’s south China correspondent and author of ‘Right of Passage: Travels from Brooklyn to Bali’ (Picador)

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Details

A one-bedroom garden-view villa with plunge pool at the Conrad SanyaHaitang Bay (www.conradhotels.com) starts at Rmb 3,400 ($520) per nightplus taxes and includes breakfast for two and a free minibar. A prettierand less expensive option is its sister hotel, Hilton Sanya Resort& Spa, Yalong Bay, Sanya (www.hilton.co.uk/sanya). A king scenicview room starts at Rmb 1,900 ($290) per night including breakfast. Anumber of Chinese airlines fly to Sanya from Beijing, Shanghai andGuangzhou. Hainan Airlines flies to Sanya from Hong Kong. Travelinformation on Sanya can be found on www.freesanya.com