Discovering Haikou: Legends of the Blackstone Course

Many visitors to Hainan begin their trip in Haikou, the provincial capital at the island's northernmost tip, looping from north to south and back again. Of late, signs have emerged that direct flights from South Korea to Sanya — the island's second city at the southern end — are on the rise again, and a growing number of travelers are opting for the reverse circuit, starting in the south and working their way north.

Home to an estimated 2.7 million people, Haikou draws its income from agriculture, fishing, agro-fishery processing, tourism and leisure, and the textile industry. Per-capita income places it among the top 10 percent of prefecture-level cities across China. The city is a sister city of Mokpo, South Korea, with which it shares a similar way of life.

According to Lamita, a travel agency specializing in health tourism to China, and Trip.com, the Guanlan Lake area is the hub of Haikou's attractions. Mission Hills Golf Club — where world-ranked players have teed off — the Guanlan Lake volcanic hot-spring valley, a five-continent themed hot-spring complex, and the Feng Xiaogang Movie Commune are all clustered in this zone.

Beyond Guanlan Lake, Haikou offers a wealth of other draws: the historic old quarter of Qilou Street (Qilou Laojie) for a journey back in time; the Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden, home to giant pandas reminiscent of China's beloved Fu Bao; the Hainan Provincial Museum; the Changchun Film Studio Fantasy Park; the award-winning ultramodern Haikou Yundong Library on the waterfront, built around the themes of clouds and caves; the Dongzhai Harbor mangrove forest; the Century Bridge; Wanlv Park, a vast urban green space where sweeping lawns meet towering palm trees; and the Leiqiong UNESCO Global Geopark, about 17 kilometers from the city center.

Haikou is a world-class resort destination today, but it was once a place of exile. The city is also home to the Temple of Five Officials, dedicated to five wrongly banished scholars — figures comparable, in Korean terms, to celebrated exile-era luminaries such as Hwang Hui, Jeong Cheol, Yun Seon-do, Nam Gu-man and Kim Jeong-hui.

Korean tourists have long flocked to Haikou for golf, but of late they have been broadening their itineraries to take in more of what the city has to offer.

Mission Hills Golf Club is, before anything else, an ecological and geological textbook — and a vast natural garden.

Because the resort sits on volcanic terrain, it features a dedicated basalt — or "Blackstone" — course. Spread across a 1.4-million-square-meter site, Mission Hills comprises 10 18-hole courses, and the Blackstone is widely regarded as the most demanding and premium of them all, requiring golfers to think strategically on every hole.

The layout winds through volcanic topography, with fairway contours and gradients that change from hole to hole. Scoring well demands a strategic shot on each tee and approach — finding precisely the right line to satisfy what each hole asks of you.

There is real pleasure in setting a mission for each hole and conquering it one by one — for instance, deciding to tee off to the right to secure a clear sightline to the green, then playing a sweeping approach to land on in one bounce while avoiding the bunkers around the putting surface.

At the first hole, basalt walls and terraced rock formations greet golfers much as they would in a Jeju fishing village. Playing on land shaped by volcanic activity tens of thousands of years ago stirs a sense of wonder all its own.

In a Jeju analogy, the tee box sits beside a formation that resembles the altar of Halmang, the island's guardian goddess — as if her blessing lends an extra measure of confidence to every swing.

Moving to the next hole, golfers encounter a tee box perched atop a gentle hill beside a small lake. In the Jeju dialect, such a lake is called a "bille mot" — a pool that forms where lava has hardened into a shallow depression and collected water.

When playing in a foursome, the fourth player can sprint across the footbridge over the lake and photograph the others swinging from the green hillside on the far side. The golfer's reflection shimmers in the water below, evoking the image of someone teeing off on the rolling meadows of Salzburg as seen in "The Sound of Music" — the result is a stunning reflection shot.

Near the end of the front nine, a heart-shaped bunker awaits. Regardless of their score, the weather, or anything else, golfers invariably stop to take a photo in front of it.

The Blackstone course — part geological textbook, part spectacular natural garden — ranks among the top 100 golf courses in the Asia-Pacific region and consistently hosts top-tier international tournaments.

It is perhaps best known as the venue for an exhibition match play between Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy on Oct. 28, 2013.

McIlroy, then at the height of his powers, beat Woods — who was on the back nine of his career dominance — by a single stroke. The McIlroy era on the PGA Tour followed for several years thereafter. This course was, in effect, the stage for a generational changing of the guard at the top of professional golf.

The course has also hosted rounds by some of the biggest names in Korean golf: LPGA stars Park Se-ri, Park In-bee, Shin Ji-yai, Yoo So-yeon, Park Sung-hyun and Kim Hyo-joo, PGA major champion Yang Yong-eun, and JGTO dominant force Kim Kyung-tae have all played here.

After the round, guests wash away their fatigue in hot springs decorated with distinct themes. Mission Hills guarantees a full family leisure trip — not just a solo golf getaway for dad — with a large water park, a kids' club, a fitness center and more than 500 spacious guest rooms.

The Mission Hills Volcanic Hot Spring Valley features themed hot-spring zones representing five continents — including Angkor Wat and Amazon themes — with a total of 168 pools.

Once guests have played, relaxed and unwound within the Mission Hills grounds, a five-minute drive from the main gate brings them to the Feng Xiaogang Movie Commune at Guanlan Lake, where a dose of cinematic culture awaits.

Meanwhile, to the southeast of Haikou, the health-focused city of Chengmai and the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone have established a regulation-free wellness corridor. Continuing south, the circuit takes in surfing in Wanning, all-inclusive leisure in Fenjiezhou and Lingshui County, hot springs and the folk culture villages of the indigenous Li people and the Miao settlers in Baoting, and the Qixianling National Forest Park. At the island's southern tip sits Sanya, Hainan's second-largest city. (Hainan travel series to be continued)

Reporting assistance provided by Lamita, a travel agency specializing in health tourism to China.