Leisure is not something weassociate with China, the factory of the world. So a Made in Chinatropical paradise to rival Bali or Phuket may seem wildly improbable –but that is not going to stop Beijing from trying to create one. Lastsummer, China’s state council said it planned to attract many moreinternational visitors to Hainan, the island off its southern tip, justan hour by air from Hong Kong. The government’s plan for an“international tourism island” forecasts 77m visitors a year by 2020, upfrom 25m (overwhelmingly domestic) tourists today.

Travelling with a colleague to Hainan, our first impressions werepleasing. The new high-speed train from Boao, where I had been attendinga conference, to Sanya, the main tourist destination, clipped along atup to 250km per hour. Verdant paddy fields that would not have lookedout of place in Kerala or Bali flashed by. The sky was apostcard-perfect blue; Hainan has been spared the pollution that hangsover much of China because it is primarily an agricultural andtourism-oriented province.

The taxi driver who drove us from the station to the new strip ofluxury hotel developments in Haitang Bay spoke happily about China’sequivalent of a royal wedding, which took place in late March at ourhotel, the Conrad.

A beautiful Taiwanese pop singer and her Chinese entrepreneurbridegroom took over the Conrad, and its less expensive sister hotel,the Doubletree Hilton next door, for celebrations with 200 guests.Indeed, one of the charms of visiting Hainan is to hear about – andwitness – China’s new rich spending their wealth with abandon. On themorning I arrived, I met the manager of a golf resort who told me thatsix coal mine owners from Shanxi had each rented luxury hotel suites fora month – and paid their bills with bags of cash.

The Conrad, which opened in December,has already achieved a stately pre-eminence because it is the onlypredominantly villa property in Hainan, but it still feels very new.

Walking on the lawns, you feel as though the grass is actuallygrowing under your feet. Industrial-sized sprinklers spin at everycorner and an army of green-shirted gardeners is always in evidence.When I drew the curtains of my room early on Sunday, three men weredigging up what looked like a giant flower-bed just outside. Nature hasits own timetable, however. The hotel has a phalanx of petrified palmsthat look like they were struck by lightning and no amount of waterseems able to restore them.

But nothing prepared me for the hotel’s private – which is to saydesolate – beach. If there is a nastier beach at a resort in Asia, Ihave not seen it. I tried to jog along its steep inclines, only for twostaff members to sprint towards me to forbid me from entering the water.The tides here were too strong, they said. Guests are never allowed toswim off the beach.

And before using the hotel pool I signed a disclaimer that read: “Ido also hereby release all of those mentioned (the Conrad Sanya HaitangBay) and any other actions upon their behalf from any responsibility orliability for any injury or damage to myself, including those caused bythe negligent act or omission of any of those mentioned ... ”.

The prohibition from swimming in the sea, the sense of taking yourlife into your hands to enter the Conrad’s shallow pools and theceaseless activity of an agricultural commune make the hotel less thanrelaxing. The architecture is a modernised pastiche of Roman villa meetsSpanish hacienda.

The charming staff are thebest thing about this hotel. Within a day, you begin to know many byname – Jamel, Vivian and Messi. Messi? The bellboy had decided hiswestern name should be that of his favourite footballer.

There are occasional excesses. Turn-down service included switchingon a radio channel playing a “Dream Land” CD with songs such as the“Mary Poppins Medley”. Clayderman-esque anthems are ubiquitous in theluxury hotels of India and China, but at the Conrad the muzak followsyou everywhere from speakers hidden in the shrubbery. Beyond thegrounds, vast building sites for other luxury hotels blight the area –properties of the Starwood Luxury Collection and the Kempinski, amongothers. Despite the new openings, Haitang Bay and Sanya still lack goodrestaurants. During my stay here I was reminded often of “The Seacoastof Despair”, an essay by Joan Didion about the mansions built by early20th-century American magnates in Rhode Island. Those fin-de-sièclesummer homes were built by fortunes also made from railroads andcoal-mining and were an unseemly medley of architectural styles. “Thereis something in the air that has nothing to do with pleasure ... a sensenot of how prettily money can be spent but of how harshly money ismade,” she wrote.

When you find yourself sitting at a luxury beach resort pining forother seaside hotels in Asia such as the Four Seasons on LandaaGiraavaru in the Maldives or the Oberoi on Kuta beach in Bali, it istime to cut your losses. I checked out half a day early so that I hadenough time to swim off the stunning white sand beach in nearby YalongBay, where bathing is allowed. This bay is already dotted with hotels,including a less expensive and much better-designed sister property ofthe Conrad.

If you must visit Haitang Bay, wait a while before you go. An earneststaff member at the Conrad told us that “the government has promised tofix the problem” of the tides by next year. “Are they going to turnback the tide?” my colleague asked incredulously, in Mandarin. But wehad heard right the first time. “Our government will solve the tideproblem. It is very powerful,” she said.

If the Chinese government can conquerthe tides in Haitang Bay, and add a dozen good restaurants and a fewATMs, perhaps Hainan will one day surpass Bali and Phuket as a resortparadise.

Rahul Jacob is the FT’s south China correspondent and author of ‘Right of Passage: Travels from Brooklyn to Bali’ (Picador)

..................................................

Details

A one-bedroom garden-view villa with plunge pool at the Conrad SanyaHaitang Bay (www.conradhotels.com) starts at Rmb 3,400 ($520) per nightplus taxes and includes breakfast for two and a free minibar. A prettierand less expensive option is its sister hotel, Hilton Sanya Resort& Spa, Yalong Bay, Sanya (www.hilton.co.uk/sanya). A king scenicview room starts at Rmb 1,900 ($290) per night including breakfast. Anumber of Chinese airlines fly to Sanya from Beijing, Shanghai andGuangzhou. Hainan Airlines flies to Sanya from Hong Kong. Travelinformation on Sanya can be found on www.freesanya.com