Chinese Easter 1. Hainan
I think this is a long one, with very little about the football. So let’s start with the basics
Hainan Boying 1-0 Meixian Techand. China League 2, (or Jia B). South Section
Admission 30 RMB (£3). No programme. Attendance ~400
I am staying at an apartment on a new complex in the Clearwater Bay Tourist zone, Lingshui County. They have a daily bus to Lingshui station, so I started my day on this. The first thing to do is to queue for a ticket. The queue is about 30 minutes long. It is quite simple to ask for a ticket to Haikou East Station (the end of the line), but I then show them the time of the required return train. They happily issue a ticket for this, but take away the original. No amount of persuasion seems good enough to get two tickets, and by the time I have secured the outward ticket again, it is for the next train. Fortunately, only 20 minutes later than the original. Note to any travellers heading to China, you need to show your passport to buy a train ticket, which I think means that foreigners cannot use the automated machines, even if they can understand Chinese. The Chinese have ID cards with a RFID*1 tag allowing them to use these machines.
You then have to go through security. A guard checks your ticket and passport, and stamps the ticket, allowing you into the waiting area. There are ticket readers as well at the gates to the platforms, and these only let you in after the system has declared the train as ready to board. Only one train will board at a time, so we cannot move until after boarding has finished for a train the other way.
This may sound carefully regulated, but in fact it is regulated chaos. In each of the queues, there are people pushing in at various points. Many of the people waiting for tickets at the station have complex journeys involving a change at Haikou for a ferry and then onward travel. Meanwhile others wish to push into the front, possibly to collect pre-ordered tickets for a train that is about to depart.
Even when entering the platform, people still queue jump. It’s the local way of life. There is no point in queue jumping here, because everyone is going to go through, and has a specified seat on the train. At least, I thought I had a seat, but when I looked, I found I had a carriage number and no seat number. I was soon told that was because seats were sold out and I had to stand. There were a couple of empty seats, so we used them for the first 20 minutes, but these were claimed at the next station. We then pushed on down and found that while our carriage was all reserved, the next one was half empty, and it was easy to get a seat.
At Haikou, I decided to buy the ticket before leaving the station, requiring another 30 minutes queuing, and then negotiation as the seller did not want to understand that
a) we wanted to travel on the train we specified, on the day specified (not 24 hours later)
b) I wanted two tickets, one for myself, and one for a child – as per the two people queueing and the two passports handed it.
The result was that half way through the transaction, someone pushed in from the side (almost certainly ignoring the whole 30 minute length queue) and demanded service. We then had to wait as this was dealt with (at some length, it wasn’t a language issue, everyone seems to have problem at a Chinese railway station). At least we did then get our tickets issued, with people now approaching the window from both sides requiring a “push in service”. Even then, I discovered that the tickets issues were seats B/D in a row – this is the middle of a group of three, and the seat the opposite side of the aisle.
Time to finally leave the station. I immediately spied the tourist information booth. Certainly a chance for more fun. I picked up a local map, all in Chinese, and asked about the location of the football ground. I had the name of the team and stadium in Chinese on a web site, but the girl had not heard of either. Her first comment was it was not in Haikou at all, and then when pushed circled a point on the map quite a distance from where I thought the stadium would be.
Haikou streets, (renaissance town). Beware of the Moped – although at least here the average number of riders per moped in under 2. I only saw one with four people on it.
After this, she called over two other members of staff, had a conflab and decided that the location I had asked about was in fact the correct place. We spent a small time in the old town, or renaissance town as the tourist girl insisted it was called. It was not possible to see a lot with a seven year old in tow, so I asked a taxi to take us to the ground. With the return to the station later, I had three taxi rides in the city, all took about 30 minutes, with about half the time stuck in traffic. All somehow managed to avoid the chaotic phalanx*2 of mopeds that would swarm across every road junction when the lights changed. All charged a little under 30 RMB.
The good news was the ground was where I thought it was. I had arrived close to the East side, and this side had uncovered seats over the full length. The uncovered seats stretched around curves behind both goals, (this being a stadium with a running track), with cover only on the West side. I could have wandered up any of the staircases and taken a free seat on this side, but I just wanted to walk around. I did make a quick investigation, and found wet washing hanging above the staircase.
An unusual seating layout, with not all seats pointed towards the pitch
On the South and West sides, where the ground meets streets, there are a number of small shops and restaurants, and in one corner they are given over to medical services, (probably in connection with the hospital opposite). Seeing one next to a gate to the ground, I looked to see if it was an entrance, but it turned out to be a massage parlour (of the strictly legitimate type).
On the road side of the main stand, we spied the ticket sales. This looked straight forward, but at the first point, they were issuing receipts and taking ID numbers. It turned out that at this point, they were selling season tickets, and I needed to walk a little further for a day ticket at 30 RMB (£3). The child was free, and also got a free mini vuvuzela with which he (along with many other kids in the ground) could make annoying noises for the rest of the day.
Hainan is the smallest province in China, only about 1.5 Wales in size (using the well-known international measurement), with a population of just 9 million. My train journey was 242 km (similar to Cardiff to Rhyl) and took 80 minutes. Hainan Boying is the provinces only fully professional football team, and I would say 90% of the population do not know they exist.
The ground itself is modern and neat. Most of it has around ten rows of seats, with cover only on the west stand. With the lowest row being around 5 metres above the ground, the viewing lines are good from most seats. Considering that this was the first league match of the season, the pitch had surprisingly bare patches in both goalmouths. The ground apparently belongs to Hainan Sports Academy, (who are likely to be responsible for creating the washing hanging in the gangways), and must see use throughout the winter. [Hainan is a great winter destination for a holiday, but football supporters should note this was the first league game of the season].
It appears that in China, home teams change when there is a colour clash, so the home side played in a pink strip, rather than the red and blue adorned by many of their supporters, the visitors were in Blue
Fans and team showing colours. You may just make out the patterning that gives the club shorts their lighter colour. The marketing people would like to sell Hainan as the “Hawaii of China”, and I think the shorts are a slight nod to this
All lined up – awaiting a very poorly hit free kick
The game was poor, both sides playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation, but then bypassing the midfield with long balls and hoping the defenders made a mistake. The trouble with this is that there are more defenders than attackers, and so someone covers for the mistake, whereas any failure by the attacker leads to the ball launched in the opposite direction. The temperature was around 30oC, and it will have been warm in the sunshine on the pitch, but it was still a bad sign that the players, who I am told are full time professionals did not have the stamina for a 90 minute game.
Still we did have one good moment, just after the hour when Zhoa Huang swung in a long free kick from the right, evading the defence, it found Sun Xi Cun coming in at the far post, to score the only goal. Within the next 12 minutes, the home team had made all three substitutes and switched from 4-2-3-1 to 5-3-2 with at least eight players behind the ball whenever Meixian had possession. Blatant timewasting was also the order of the day, ending up with an “injury” after the board indicating five minutes of injury time allowed. It took over a minute to restart play, and no surprise that none of this was added on by the referee.
Other points to note, although the crowd was small, the was a continual singing of both Hainan and Haikou (the city name) and banging of drums to accompany the match, as well as the kiddies’ vuvuzelas. As far as I could tell, the company name Boying was never mentioned in the chants. The team name has been changed from Hainan Boying & Seamen to simply Hainan Boying in the close season. The supporters flags all ready Hainan Boying and Fans Club (in English). Curiously, it appeared that the scoreboard referred to the club as Haikou Boying (in Chinese)
There were about 40 or 50 fans out in the sun opposite the main stand. I realised late on that these were away fans. If Meixian (based in Meizhou) even has an airport, then it must be 90 minutes to two hours flying time from Haikou!
Away fans are fully equipped with umbrellas.
I managed to corner a couple of club officials who had limited English after the game, noticing as I passed that the after match press conference was packed full, despite my earlier recollection that there were no actual press benches, or anyone visibly writing notes as the game progressed. Considering the crowd was only around 400, (I suggested 500, but they said I was over estimating), they confirmed these were fully professional, and basically reliant on the money from their owners, Boying to exist. They were not at all surprised how few people I had found that knew of their existence, but it did not seem to bother them a great deal. Meanwhile, just six weeks earlier, the Mission Hills Golf Club, close to town announced a link up with Barcelona to run a soccer academy. Former player Ronaldinho had visited and met a group of kids, all well kitted out in Barcelona kit for the opening. Somehow, one finds it hard to believe that whatever goes down at Mission Hills will ever be more than a commercial venture, (they are opening a megastore as well), while the kids that end up playing for the local side will have to get their training elsewhere.
And finally the return train journey, which went somewhat easier than the outward one. Above us at the station, a poster invites us to explore beautiful Hainan with Luneng (the owner of one of the Chinese Super League clubs). The global icon, David Beckham smiles from the poster, I wonder whether or not he ever took the advice of the poster. On the train, we took two seats together, (B/C) with a young lady at the window seat. I was expecting someone would come and claim the “C” seat, but as it happened, the person getting on at the next station wanted the “A” (as in window) seat. He took the aisle seat until the train staff came along, and was apparently told to stop complaining, as there were plenty of empty seats anyway!
*1Radio Frequency Identification
*2 Definitely not an oxymoron in China