Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Waikīkī is a neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii, in the City and County of Honolulu, on the south shore of the Island of O'ahu. The name means fetched water in Hawaiian for springs that fed wetlands that once separated Waikīkī from the interior. Waikīkī has long been a place of relaxation, and is today the very center of the tourist industry in Hawaii. Waikīkī extends from the Ala Wai Canal (a channel dug to drain the former wetlands) on the west and north to Diamond Head on the east. Waikīkī Beach is the shoreline fronting Waikīkī and one of the best known beaches in the world. The beach has had its problems, losing sand along many sections because of groynes built out from the shore. This has led to beach replenishment projects in the past, including a "disastrous" one involving a man-made sand that the gentle surf turned into a concrete-like surface. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.