Wuzhishan (click to enlarge images)                                         Steep trail with Jiang

Today we split up – Jiang and I went to climb Wuzhishan (at 1871 m, the tallest point on Hainan Island) and JinXiu and Gao went to villages to look at plants around there. Wuzhishan is called “Five Finger Mountain” for the five peaks; the trail up to the top begins at about 800 m elevation and basically goes straight up the ridge. To climb you have to pull yourself up by trees and roots – near the top there is a series of rickety ladders. The plants were beautiful – this Rhododendron had flowers about 3 cm across. We didn’t quite make it – we had to be back down by 1 pm to go on, so had to turn back. I could see, however, that the last 200 m climb was straight up and very precarious!

Rhododendron                                                                  The pigsty

We then went on to a small village in the next mountain range – the centre of Hainan is inhabited by people of the Li ethnic group. There we were excited to find a purple semi-wild aubergine or aubergine relative! The villagers had brought it with them from their previous village, but the younger people said they were not interested in it – it was for old people only. It was growing in a pigsty, alongside the normal yellow-fruited sorts of plants we had been collecting all along the way. It will be fascinating to see where this purple-fruited plant fits genetically.

Purple aubergine

After collecting until neraly dark, we sped on to Sanya, the southernmost city in China. It is a real tourist haven - for Chinese tourists! Lots of people come here in the winter as it is nice and warm (34 degrees C at 7 pm after dark). We were taken to a special seafood place by Mr. Huang from the Forestry Bureau who will collect with us tomorrow - you got to choose your dinner from tanks! The variety was astounding.

Dinner from a tank