Haikou Old Town

The pedestrianised streets around Zhongshan Lu are a looking glass into Haikou’s French colonial past, with cobblestone blocks of porticoed row houses – some restored, some charmingly decayed. Though still a work in progress, ‘Old Town’ has some cute cafes, bookshops, and markets hawking handicrafts and spices, while down the smaller side streets you can still see active scenes of local life.