Travel to the Tropical Paradise Island of Sanya

I grew up on an island and lived just a few short steps from the beach. I would go to bed and wake up listening to the sound of the waves rolling in and crashing onto the beach. I miss that now that I live in China, and in an area so far away from the sea.

In the summer of 2006 I searched the Internet for somewhere on the coast that would bring back those memories of where I grew up. The coastline of China is very long, but not much of the sea is as blue as it should be! I found an island called Shengsi, which is near Shanghai and it looked like a really nice island with beaches similar to the ones I was used to. Unfortunately, although it's great for the Chinese economy, Shanghai is now the world's busiest port, and with around 500 million tons of cargo going through it every year, it's taking its toll on the waters around Shanghai. Instead of the clean, clear, fresh blue waters I had hoped to find at Shengsi, I found nice beaches, but with a horrible yellow, brown sea...along with a military training camp based there!

So in 2007 I searched again in the hopes of finding a paradise-like island with beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters. As difficult and impossible as that sounds in China, I found it! In the very south of China, in the South China Sea is Hainan Province, and just off Hainan lies the island of Sanya.

I had really high hopes for Sanya. There is quite a lot of information about the island out there on the net already and from pictures I'd seen, it did look really beautiful. Given the title of being the "Hawaii of the Orient" or the "Hawaii of China" because it lies on almost the same latitude as Hawaii, and for repeatedly hosting the Miss World beauty pageant in recent years, who wouldn't have high expectations! Does it live up to these expectations? Yes, it does!

The air is fresh, the sea is blue, the beaches are golden and clean, and the vegetation is lush.

The most popular destination in Sanya for tourists is Yalong Bay and it is beautiful. It's closer to the centre for shopping etc. and the major hotels can be found there. However, we chose to stay further along the coast at Sanya Bay, which is a lot less developed and where there are fewer tourists.?We stayed at the Kempinski Hotel, which is a beautiful hotel, has full amenities and great restaurants, is reasonably priced, and even has its own private beach.

One scenic spot convenient for Sanya Bay and very popular with tourists is Tianya Haijioa, which means The End of the Earth. It's famous for its rocks on the beach, which are just like any other rocks, but these ones were engraved centuries ago with Chinese characters.

The sea at Yalong Bay and at Sanya Bay is very clean and blue, but if you really want to see that really crystal green, blue sea that you'd expect to find on a tropical, paradise island then you need to visit Wuzhizhou Island. It's just a short boat trip away from Sanya and is a great place for a day trip from Sanya.

Another great day trip and a must-see is a visit to another island, Monkey Island. It's not strictly an island as it's a peninsula and connected to Sanya, but as you take a cable car and glide over the mountains towards Monkey Island, it feels like you're traveling to a completely different location. The "island" is a state-protected sanctuary for around 2,500 Rhesus and Macaque monkeys and a place where they can live and play without any restrictions or cages. As soon as you step out of the cable car you can see monkeys walking around everywhere and playing in the trees, and it's so great to be able to walk around in their environment and being so close to them that you can reach out and touch them....although that wouldn't be wise! The only negative part of the island is the touristy commercial side, which is to be expected anywhere like this. Shows are put on throughout the day where the monkeys are dressed up in tutus and ride round on bicycles etc., although some may find it entertaining, personally, I don't, but that said, it is still a really great place to get up close and personal with monkeys and I would love to go back there and take more photographs.

Some people say that Sanya today is like Hawaii was 50 years ago. I don't know how much of that is true, but it is a beautiful island and is a great place to spend a relaxing holiday and I really hope that they don't let it become too over-developed and commercialised.

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