Wuzhishan

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Wuzhishan (五指山; Wǔzhǐshān; formerly known as Tongzha or Tongshen) is a city in Hainan's central highlands. It is a scenic town with very few tourists, lively markets and exceedingly cheap food.

Get in

Take the bus from Sanya or Haikou. The Wuzhishan bus station is located more or less in the city center.
Buses from Sanya leave from the main bus station (三亚车站) approximately every 30 minutes - 1hr, and cost 23RMB (2015), taking 2-2.5hrs to arrive at Wuzhishan. The first bus leaves at 7:30am and the last bus back to Sanya at 6:30pm.
You can buy tickets online at www.0898hq.com (Chinese only)

Get around

Motorcycle taxis are ubiquitous and easy to flag down. None of them are licensed. They will take you most places in the city for about ¥2. Auto taxis hang about by the bus station, and most don't have meters. They seem to charge about ¥10 or less for a trip within the city.

See

Just walk around the town and its surroundings. The scenery is beautiful, and the town has an interesting market section, though it does resemble market sections in a lot of other small Chinese towns. Walking or motorbiking on the road past the Wuzhishan Shanguan (see below) takes you quickly into quite rustic quarters. You can then deviate off the road onto one of the small footpaths that leads out into the jungle. Try to get back to the main road before dark, as it can be easy to get lost on these paths.

Hainan Nationalities Museum(closed until sometime in 2016 - being rebuilt) Free museum about Hainan Minorities, lots of information in English. From the bus station turn right, walk about 15m and turn right at a street that goes up a hill, take right at first street, you will see some old shops and apartments on that street, walk past those and museum will be on your right. Opens at 9AM.

Do

Wuzhi MountainThe adventuresome (and fit), might try climbing the 1,868 meter peak of Wuzhi Mountain itself. From the trailhead, hike up to the archway, and hang a left (either before or after you go through it, as long as the trail leads uphill you are probably going the right direction). The hike to the top is a grueling 2.5-3.5 hours. You will be climbing up ladders and roots, as the trail is extremely steep. You will probably have the whole mountain to yourself unless you go on one of the holy days of the local minorities. On these days, the trail is apparently quite crowded. Whatever they celebrate, it causes them to leave a lot of trash and firecracker wrappers lying about. Make sure to take A LOT of food and water, dehydration could even be fatal. Do not do this unless you are in pretty good shape and have some experience hiking. The area is officially a nature reserve. Staff discourage using the tropical trail on the grounds that you may get lost. This is true, as the trail branches off in many directions and does not conform to the map. The tropical trail is almost completely free of visitors and garbage. Near the start of the tropical trail (on the rainforest trail, by the bridge) there is a very small outdoor restaurant.

Eat

Wuzhishan abounds with ridiculously cheap noodle and dumpling shops. Even the "upscale" dining at the hotels is quite inexpensive.

Sleep

Wuzhishan Resort Hotel

phone: +86 898 8662 3188
A beautiful hotel with well appointed and comfortable rooms and nice staff. It is quiet and affords very nice views of the town and surrounding mountains.
Guest HouseLooks pretty basic, cheap and not particularly busy. You probably do not need a reservation. In fact, you might not be able to get one at all. As of February 2008, there is no accommodation available at the foot of the mountain.
Hongye HotelA very clean hotel with prices for a double room starting at 170 yuan. Best value.
Zhujiang Shuijing HotelA 4 star hotel that has very nice rooms, great swimming pool. Its possible to book online to save some money, it's about 400 Yuan for a Queen bed.
Jadeite Valley Eco ResortVery standard Chinese rooms, green swimming pool (in color, not eco), rooms booked online are about 250Y and 100 if you don't have a reservation. Free breakfast consists of cold noodles, boiled eggs and hot dogs, but has a great view. Has a cool castle that has rooms but can't stay there. Have to Take a car to and from there about 10 yuan for a tuk tuk and 20 for a car.

There are hotels in Shuiman some within walking distance of the bus station.

Shuimanyuan Hotel

phone: +86 898 86550333
Pleasant architecture and idyllic pastoral views.

Go next

The Wuzhishan bus station has more or less hourly buses to Haikou, and Sanya until about 5:30PM.