Happy Tycoon

Saipan is nicknamed The Pearl of the Western Pacific.

This nickname is not random. Saipan is located at about 15 north latitude, in the surrounding unpolluted waters. The island has many natural scenery, such as the blue hole connected to the Pacific Ocean, and the birds that inhabit many birds. There are also many cultural landscapes, such as the American Memorial Park, the Long Live Cliff where the Japanese collectively jumped off the cliff and committed suicide after the defeat of the Japanese, and the Taga House similar to the Emirates Palace left by the Taga people 3,500 years ago; and Spectacular battlefield relics left over from history, such as Warkanjima, such as the site of the last Japanese headquarters

Anyway, on this island with an area of ​​less than 200 square kilometers, it can be said that there are ten steps and one scene, and the scenery is different.

Of course, since it is an island, how can it do without beautiful beaches?

In the middle of the west coast of Saipan, there is a beach with a length of about one kilometer, named Mike Beach, which can be called the most beautiful beach in Saipan.

Because it is on the west coast of Saipan, the wind and waves here are much smaller than the beaches on the east coast. The fine white sand is extremely soft, and it will be very comfortable to step on it with bare feet. What is especially amazing is that standing on Mike's beach and watching the ocean, you will find that there are seven incredible colors in the sea.

And when the sun sets, the sky is full of sunset clouds, and enjoying the sunset here will have a special style.

The beautiful and quiet Mike Beach is recognized as the best beach in Saipan and even in the whole Northern Mariana Islands.

The Hyatt Hotel that Yang Jing and the others booked is located on Mike Beach. The hotel is surrounded by 14 acres of tropical gardens and lagoons, creating a luxurious tranquility in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Yang Jing booked three suites in this hotel belonging to the Hyatt Hotel Group headquartered in Chicago, USA. One is a presidential suite with 215 square meters, and the other two are executive suites with 117 square meters.

These three suites cost Yang Jing $6,600 a day including taxes. But this price is definitely cheap compared to suites in five-star hotels in Paris, London or New York.

After arriving at the hotel, the group arranged the room and covered their heads for jet lag. Flying from Port Moresby to Manila and then from Manila to Saipan in one day and one night was not only tiring, but also somewhat disturbed by jet lag. Coupled with the fact that the sun is sufficient today, it is obvious that we have to deal with strong ultraviolet rays when we go out to play, so we might as well rest in a hotel.

After a full night's sleep, everyone woke up the next day feeling refreshed.

Yang Jing was not in a hurry to go to Guam to experience the thrill of flying an F15 fighter plane. Chris had already rented an eight-seater seaplane with a cargo warehouse for Yang Jing, and the most important thing was to go to the Maug Islands for business. Otherwise, the series of shipping lists would always be on his mind, even if he was playing, Yang Jing would not be very interested in playing.

This kind of seaplane does not fly fast, and the flying altitude is not high, only about 800 meters. If you want to visit the entire Northern Mariana Islands in the air, taking this seaplane is undoubtedly the best choice. Because this kind of plane has a range unmatched by helicopters and can land directly on the sea, this is the main reason why Yang Jing chose to fly to the Maug Islands more than 500 kilometers away by seaplane.

Seaplane takeoff and landing does not require a dedicated airport, as long as the water condition is good, it can take off and land anytime and anywhere.

And God was kind to me, the wind was much lower the next day, although the sun was still abundant, it was obviously great to take off and land a seaplane in this kind of weather.

From Saipan to the Maug Islands in the north, the straight-line distance is 530 kilometers, and it takes about two hours to arrive at the flying speed of a seaplane.

Because of the close contact between the Philippine Sea plate and the Pacific plate, the ancient, cold Pacific plate subducts under the young, less dense Philippine Sea plate in the Mariana Trench. As a result, the upper plate produced a lot of volcanic activity, not only formed the deepest Mariana Trench in the world between the two, but also created a series of pearl-like islands on the west side of this trench.

These islands are formed by volcanoes and rising corals, along the Mariana Trench stretching more than 800 kilometers of island arcs, this string of island arcs is the Mariana Islands.

The northernmost island of the Mariana Islands is a volcanic island called Depajaros Rock. About 64 kilometers southeast of Depajaros Rock is the Maug Islands.

After the seaplane took off from the sea off Mike Beach, it flew north along the Northern Mariana Islands. The pilots were naturally George and Chris.

It is not difficult for the two of them to fly this kind of propeller plane, and flying in this kind of sea area does not even need GPS positioning, just need to fly along this series of volcanic islands, and there is no need to worry about getting lost Direction, because you can see an island by flying forward a short distance, and you can see another island by flying over this island.

These islands are the best navigation marks.

Because the flying altitude is only kept at about 600 meters, the scenes on those islands can be seen clearly without a telescope.

For example, when the plane flew over Pagan Island, Yang Jing could even see the hot steam coming out from the volcano in the north of Pagan Island.

This Pagan Island is less than 50 square kilometers, but this island is quite a terrifying island. Because this small island is basically composed of two active volcanoes, and within nearly a century, the two active volcanoes on this island have erupted three times on a large scale.

As early as 1922, the volcano on this island had a large-scale eruption, and then fell into silence. At that time, residents who left the island returned to the island again. Later, airports and other facilities were built on the island.

However, in 1981, the two volcanoes on Pagan Island erupted on a larger scale. This eruption not only forced the evacuation of all residents on the island, but also completely destroyed all the buildings on the island. , Even that airport was swallowed by volcanic ash and magma.

Just like the Rabaul Airport that Yang Jing had seen in Rabaul, this airport built on Pagan Island can only be seen a little outline now.

In 2010, the volcano on Pagan Island erupted again, and from then until now, the two volcanoes on the island will emit some gas from time to time, and I don’t know if it is the lingering breath between the volcano’s silence again. , or a larger eruption is brewing.

Anyway, this island is completely unsuitable for human habitation, and no tourists are willing to visit the vicinity of this island. An island with a beautiful scenery was completely destroyed by the volcano.

Flying about 63 kilometers north from Pagan Island, you will come to Agrihan Island, which ranks fifth in area in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Like Pagan Island, this island is an island formed by stratovolcanoes. The entire island is a volcano that rises more than 4,000 meters from the seabed and finally emerges from the sea to form today's Agrihan Island.

Looking down at the volcanic island from the air, it can be easily recognized that the island is actually a volcano protruding from the sea level. The highest point of the volcano is even more than 300 meters higher than the altitude of the seaplane. However, under Yang Jing's signal, after George lifted the plane, everyone could clearly see the huge crater with a diameter of two kilometers and a depth of more than 500 meters in the air.

In 1990, Agrihan Island also had a volcanic eruption warning, and all residents of the four villages on the island were evacuated, but that warning did not come true, and this huge volcano did not erupt. Later, I saw that the volcano was quite honest, unlike the two irritable big guys on the neighboring Pagan Island, so some residents slowly returned to live on the island.

It can also be seen from the dense vegetation on this island that this volcano has indeed been silent for a long time, otherwise the vegetation on the island would not be so intact and dense. In contrast, the vegetation on Pagan Island in the south is like the hair of alopecia areata patients + bald people, sparse, patchy here and there, not much better than a dog gnawing.

When flying over the island, Yang Jing even vaguely saw a few houses in the dense jungle near the southernmost coastline of the island. Obviously, these houses were built by the residents who moved back to live.

The plane passed Agrihan Island very quickly, and after continuing to fly northward for about a hundred kilometers, a volcanic island appeared in everyone's sight again.

As can be seen from the map, the island is Asunción.

Like Agrihan, this island was raised purely by a volcano from the sea floor. The whole island is a huge crater. It's just that this island is much smaller than Agrihan Island.

Judging from the data, Asuncion Island is 3.3 kilometers long from north to south and 3 kilometers wide from east to west, which is almost a circle. The volcano on the island is 857 meters high, only a hundred meters shorter than the volcano on Agrihan Island, and this volcano does not have a deep and large crater.

When the plane climbs to a height above the volcano, you can clearly see the whole picture of the island. The eastern half of the island is very steep, while the western half is relatively gentle, and the vegetation on the volcano is also very lush. After all, although this volcano is also an active volcano, the last eruption was in 1906, which has exceeded 110 years.

Appreciating this series of volcanoes and volcanic islands up close from the plane makes the slightly boring flight less boring. Flying over Asunción Island, at an altitude of nearly 1,000 meters, you can clearly see the destination about 37 kilometers away in the northwest - the Maug Islands.

The plane adjusted its direction slightly, then lowered its altitude, and accelerated towards its destination.