If you choose to dine out, first find a hostess. She will escort you through the market where you can point and choose the type and amount of fish you would like to eat.  Back at the table the staff will ask you how you want it prepared.  If you don’t speak Mandarin, smile, shrug, and nod.  Have a sense of humor and be flexible.  The food is generally excellent regardless of how its prepared. Waiters and waitresses will wander by with platters of fresh vegetables, nan (flat, fried bread), and various local specialties. Roving musicians will serenade you for the current going rate of 5 yuan per song.  If you are a foreigner the musicians will probably play either Celine Dion’s “Titanic Theme” or “Auld Lang Syne.”  These restaurants are almost always packed.

 

 

Detailed instructions on how to get there:  Across the street from the Old Clock Tower (a Haikou landmark) at the end of Jiefang Lu, take the #39 or #14 bus.  The bus will follow the river on the left for a ways, then turn right by a freeway overpass.  Eventually the bus will turn left onto Wenming Dong Lu.  The bus will cross the river.  Get off at the first stop after the river.  If you miss it, don’t worry, the bus will turn right and there’s another stop very close.  Across the street on the corner you will see a Bank of China.  Follow the street that the bank is on (Wenming Lu) to the first street on your left — Banqiu.  A Mobile Station is right across from it.  Go down about two blocks and you will come to the restaurants and market on your left.  Buses #13 & #34 also go by here, although I’m not sure where you catch them from.

Located in the Guo Mao district, this is the one of the first restaurants I came to when I moved to Haikou.  Two hostesses in long silk gowns open the door to a huge circular room with tiled floors and a stage in front upon arrival.  Typical Xinjiang décor of plastic leaves and grapes hang from the lattice roof.  Like most Chinese restaurants a TV dominates the front of the room, while several smaller ones, each with a different program, are scattered around different corners of the room.  Nevertheless, the food is outstanding.  The first time I went there five of us enjoyed an amazing meal of lamb shish kabobs, homemade noodles with chopped peppers, and several green vegetable dishes sautéed with garlic to just the right crispness.  The topper, though, was apple and sweet potatoes with a sweet caramel covering that you dip in a dish of cold water before eating.  The food just kept coming.  There were more dishes than I can remember to describe.  I had just come from California where a meal like this would have cost $200.  Much to my surprise the bill totaled just a bit over 100 RMB, around 15 US dollars. Since that day I’ve had a fondness for Xinjiang food.  I’ve been back to Xin Jiang Restaurant several times and have not been disappointed.  Meat lover are sure to enjoy the large leg of lamb that you can gnaw on like a caveman, while vegetarians will find plenty to appease more healthy appetites.  A picture menu makes ordering easy.