NEVER STRAYS FAR EAST: ADVENTURES IN HAINAN

Ned Boulting· Host0:00

[cicadas chirping] Can you hear those cicadas? If you're standing where I am right underneath this tree, it's unbelievably loud. I don't know if it's picking up on the recording. You can probably hear some traffic as well. I'm, I'm standing next to a dual carriageway, uh, in, in Yangpu in Hainan. But I'm standing more significantly and directly underneath a banyan tree, and I've never seen anything quite like it, actually. Not particularly tall. It's got this, uh, this trunk which is all sorts of different bits of growth intertwined like a braided trunk, and then the real feature of the banyan tree is it's got aerial roots. So hanging down from the main, uh, arterial arteries of the trunk are these, uh, kind of, uh, dead-looking roots. I mean, exactly like as if you pulled up a plant and, and, and took it out of the ground and then hung it up to dry. That's what you imagine roots would look like, but these hang in the air and, and supply the tree with what exactly? Something of a mystery. But there's a whole avenue of them planted alongside this road, and the cicadas... Hey, I've started walking again. They seem to favor one tree over the other for reasons.

Unknown speaker1:20

[upbeat music]