SANYA (China): It’s a toss-up who’s going to suffer more from culture shock: the people of Hainan or the beach-mad Britons who have China’s southernmost island in their sights. From the summer of 2007, mass tourism British-style will befall an island dubbed the Hawaii of Asia, although, truth be told, it shares little in common with the American surf and sand paradise besides Chinese tourists’ love of donning Hawaiian shirts.

Hainan’s southern beaches are superb, with golden sand and clean, blue water stretching as far as the eye can see.

Posh hotels grace the exclusive Yalong Bay resort. Rooms can cost just $125, a bargain by British standards.

Tourism accounts for at least one-sixth of gross domestic product on an island which made global headlines in 2001 after a US spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet and was forced to make an emergency landing.

Besides its stretches of golden sand, Hainan also boasts vast expanses of lush green farmland and colourfully-clad ethnic minorities like the Li and Miao.

Few would dispute Yalong Bay’s capacity to indulge a beachcomber’s desire to while away the time, but foreign holidaymakers say the British could be in for some surprises.

“What you should do is come here for a really relaxing time after mainland China or Hong Kong, but there are a couple of things to beware of,” said Jeremy McMullin, a 30-year-old software specialist from Ireland.

Hotel staff are eager but their poor English could be a frustration. Feeling obliged to say hello 15 times on the way to breakfast may be heartwarming at first but soon frays the nerves, McMullin said.

Diving is an option, but be prepared to use sign language to converse with your instructor.

Hainan is a world away from Rochdale, a gritty former mill town near Manchester in northwest England.

But it is a Rochdale-based firm, Airtours, that is about to put Hainan, and key Chinese cities, on the British holiday map.

Airtours, whose only Far Eastern charter destination now is Thailand, says it is giving itself a year to right any wrongs.—Reuters