The Town
Reached via a street running uphill just past the bus station, the recently opened Nationality Museum (8am-5pm; ¥5) affords views across town to the aptly named Nipple Mountain , 5km away to the west, while the collection itself is excellent and English-speaking guides are available for ¥10. Historical exhibits include prehistoric stone tools and a bronze drum decorated with sun and frog motifs, similar to those associated with Guangxi's Zhuang; Ming manuscripts about island life; Qing wine vessels with octopus and frog mouldings; and details of the various modern conflicts culminating in the last pocket of Guomindang resistance being overcome in 1950. There's a fine array of artefacts and photos illustrating Hainan's cultural heritage , too - Li looms and textiles, traditional weapons and housing, speckled pottery from Dongfang, and pictures of major festivals. The museum is also near to the university , if you fancy a closer look at its absurdly ostentatious green-tiled architecture.

Back across the river, the town centre is a far less pretentious handful of streets and modern concrete-and-tile buildings which you can tour in around thirty minutes. Henan Lu runs west along the waterfront from the bridge, popular in summer with its outdoor restaurants and cool breezes, though it sometimes gets flooded by the river after heavy rain. One block back, Tongshi's public square is a sociable place to hang out after dark and meet people, full of tables serviced by drink and snack vendors, crowds watching open-air table-tennis tournaments and queuing for the cinema. Nearby, on Jiefang Lu, there's a chance to see dark-dressed Miao and the occasional older Li women with tattoos at the early morning Sunday market where wares include sweet, milky-white spirit sold in plastic jerrycans, deer and dog meat, and also rat , split open like a French roll and grilled.

You can see more of the Li by catching a minibus 2km south to the tacky displays at Fanmao Mountain Fortress Village , but there's more to be said for just heading off into the countryside on foot. From the north side of the bridge, follow Hebei Xi Lu west along the river for 150m to a grossly patronizing statue of grinning Li, Miao and Han characters standing arm in arm. The crack in the middle is where somebody deliberately drove a truck into it a week after its unveiling. Take the road uphill from here and keep going as far as you want to, through vivid green fields and increasingly poor villages, ultimately built of mud and straw and surrounded by split bamboo pickets to keep livestock in. Among these you'll see more substantial barns with traditional tunnel shapes and carved wooden doors.