Sanya (; also spelled Samah) is the southernmost city on

Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

, and one of the four

prefecture-level cities A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Hainan Province Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

. According to the 2020 census, the total population of Sanya was 1,031,396 inhabitants, living in an area of . Nevertheless, its built-up (or metro) area encompassing Haitang and Jiyang Districts was home to 801,020 inhabitants as of 2020. The city is renowned for its tropical climate and has emerged as a popular tourist destination, also serving as the training site of the Chinese national

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

team. Sanya is home to small concentrations of

Utsul The Utsuls ([]; ), are a Chamic languages, Chamic-speaking East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group which lives on the island of Hainan and are considered one of the People's Republic of China's Unrecognized ethnic groups in China, unrecognized ...

people. Sanya is also the location of

Yulin Naval Base Yulin Naval Base () is the traditional base of the People's Liberation Army Navy, located in the eastern suburb of Sanya, Hainan Province, China, next to Yulin Port. Further east on Yalong Bay is the new Longpo Naval Base, formerly called "Yulin-Eas ...

, a major military facility on the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

which is home to the

People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...

ballistic nuclear missile fleet.

History

Known in ancient times as Yazhou,

postal romanization Postal romanization was a system of transliterating Chinese place names developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language for ...

: Aichow (), literally "cliff state or prefecture", Sanya's history dates to the

Qin Dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

(221–206 BCE). Due to its remoteness from the political centers during the Qin Dynasty, Sanya was sometimes called ''Tianya Haijiao'' (), meaning "the end of the sky and ocean" or "the end of the earth". As a result, the city served as a place of exile for officials who found themselves out of favor with the country's rulers. During the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, a Buddhist monk accidentally landed here, using the site as a staging post on his missionary journey to Japan.

20th century

In 1912, Yazhou became Yaxian (Yai-hsien) (; postal: Aihsien). In 1958, administration of Yaxian relocated from Yacheng to Sanya and Yaxian merged with

Baoting Bǎotíng Li and Miao Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in Hainan, China. One of the six autonomous counties on the island, its postal code is 572300. Baoting spans an area of , and has a population of about 168,000 as of 2020. Histor ...

, Lingshui, Niulou, and Xinglong,

Wanning Wanning or in local Hainanese dialect as Ban Ning is a county-level city in the southeast of Hainan Province, China. Although called a "city", Wanning refers to both the county seat and to the entire county as a whole. The county-wide area h ...

, to become a large county. In 1959 and 1961 these areas were separated to establish Baoting and Lingshui while Yaxian County remained in its current prefecture. Approved by the State Council of China, Yaxian was upgraded to Sanya City on September26, 1987 and on December30, Sanya City was officially established. In 2007 the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee announced that the city of Sanya would become the first leg of the Beijing

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

torch relay in China.

Geography

Sanya lies at the southern tip of Hainan Island on

Sanya Bay __NOTOC__ Sanya Bay () is one of the five major bays in Sanya City, Hainan Province, China. Located at the southern coast of Hainan, directly south of Sanya city, it has a 22 km beach. It is bordered by a peninsula at the east side. Within th ...

. Located at 18° 15' N latitude, Sanya is–after

Sansha Sansha City () is a prefecture-level city under the Hainan province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and is the southernmost and least populated prefecture in China, with the smallest land area but the largest maritime territory. The ci ...

(also administered by Hainan Province)–the second-southernmost prefecture-level city nationally. Though the administrative area (Sanya City) has a rough topography, the city itself is generally flat, lying on a parcel of land between low-level mountains to the north and the

Climate

The area has a

tropical wet and dry climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Aw''), featuring very warm weather all year around.

Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

al influences are strong, with a relatively lengthy

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

and a pronounced

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

. The coolest month is January, at , while the hottest, unlike much of the rest of China, is June, at ; the annual mean is . Water temperatures remain above year-round.

Subdivisions

Before July 30, 2014, there were direct jurisdiction over four county-level districts and two township-level subdistricts (), six towns () and four state-run farms in Sanya City. Now there are four districts in Sanya.

Tourism

In recent years Sanya has become a popular tourist destination. Numerous international

five star hotel Hotel ratings are often used to classify hotels according to their quality. From the initial purpose of informing travellers on basic facilities that can be expected, the objectives of hotel rating have expanded into a focus on the hotel experie ...

chains are now established in the area. In 2009, the luxury

Mandarin Oriental, Sanya The Mandarin Oriental, Sanya () is a luxury hotel and resort located in Sanya City on the southeastern coast of the island of Hainan, China. The 296-room resort opened in 2009 and is managed by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. The hotel contains 1 ...

hotel opened in the Dadong Hai area, the first Mandarin Oriental property in Hainan Island. There are now over 100 hotels, ranging from international brands to locally managed resorts. Russian and English signs can be seen throughout the city. In response to claims of over-charging of tourists (whether foreign or Chinese) at restaurants in the city, Hainan government officials and Sanya city officials have vowed to crack down on the practice. The Sanya Industrial and Commercial Bureau has implemented a real-time information system of the city's seafood restaurants during the May Day holiday for public supervision in order to stop any future price gouging by restaurants. Sanya also hosts the

Guanyin of Nanshan The Guanyin of Nanshan () is a statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin, sited on the south coast of China's island province Hainan near the Nanshan Temple of Sanya. The statue has three aspects: one side faces inland and the other two face the South C ...

, that is located within the

Nanshan Temple (Sanya) Nanshan Temple () is a Buddhist temple located in Sanya, Hainan province, China. The temple's name originates from a popular Buddhist expression. (). History The temple was built on April 12, 1988, to commemorate two thousand years of Buddhism ...

. Nature reserves of Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park () and Sanya Coral Reef National Nature Reserve () are located nearby

Yalong Bay Yalong Bay () is a beach located in southeast Sanya, Hainan, China. It is also known as the Yalong Bay National Resort. The eastern part of the bay is occupied by PLA Navy as the East Section of Yulin Naval Base. Hotels Many internationally op ...

, and Yalong Bay National Tourism Holiday Resort was created. In recent years, as the waters of

and others below mentioned are becoming clearer and healthier, several species of

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

s, including endangered

Chinese white dolphin The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (''Sousa chinensis'') is a species of humpback dolphin inhabiting coastal waters of the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. This species is often referred to as the Chinese white dolphin in mainland Chi ...

s, appear along the coasts from time to time. However, they have not been considered as targeted tourism attractions.

Transportation

The city is served by

Sanya Phoenix International Airport Sanya Phoenix International Airport is an airport serving the city of Sanya in Hainan, the southernmost province of China. It is located about northwest of the city center. Sanya Phoenix International Airport is a main airport hub and compri ...

. Taxis are available throughout the city. Buses from other parts of Hainan serve Sanya's bus terminal. The No. 8 bus connects the airport to Dadonghai Beach. From there tourists can take the 24 or 25 bus to Yalong Bay or the 28 bus to Haitang Bay. There is also a free bus from Luhuitou Square to the Duty-Free Shopping Center at Haitang Bay, the largest such center in China.

Hainan East Ring Intercity Rail

The Hainan East Ring Intercity Rail links Sanya and

Haikou Haikou (; ), also spelled as Hoikow is the capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. The northern part of the city is on the Ha ...

and runs along the east coast of Hainan Island. There are 15 stations in between, either in operation or still under construction. Trains are designed to travel at . Travel time from Sanya to Haikou is approximately 1 hour and 22 minutes. The

Hainan Western Ring High-Speed Railway The Hainan western ring high-speed railway (, often abbreviated ) is a high-speed railway operated by China Railway High-speed in Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), con ...

, running along the west coast of the province also links Sanya to Haikou.

Tram

Sanya's tram service began trial operation on 7 January 2019. Trams are composed of five carriages with a maximum seating capacity of 362 people. In built up and urbanised areas, the maximum speed of the tram is 50 km/h. The current tram route begins at Sanya Railway Station and finishes at Jiankang Road Station. Full operation of the first line started on 10 October 2020.

Social services

Hospitals

There are a total of 54 hospitals in Sanya as of March 2019, both public hospitals funded by the state and private hospitals. And numerous clinics for doing annual health-checks, which are usually brands of national chains in China, such as Ciming Healthcheck. Hainan 301 Hospital, a branch hospital of People's Liberation Army General Hospital, is located in the Haitang Bay area of Sanya. The hospital possesses a substantial number of state-of-the-art equipment for medical and research purposes which include a Da Vinci surgical system, different MIR system (including 1.5T MRI 3.0T MRI), Helical CT facilities (including 128-Slices CT), medical linear accelerator and electronic microscopes which are worth more than 450 million yuan. The hospital has 500 patient beds, and a total of 74 clinical, medical and nursing departments. Sanya Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital () is located on Fenghuang Road. It is a grade-A tertiary hospital offering medical care, education, research, healthcare services and International Chinese Medicine exchange and cooperation.

Education

Colleges and universities

Sanya University () Located at Xueyuan Rd., Yingbin Ave. Sanya Hainan 572022. Sanya University is an independent undergraduate university. The university has fourteen schools: Social Development, Law, Finance and Economics, Management, Tourism Management, Humanities and Communication, Arts, Foreign Languages, Engineering, Physical Education, General Education & Foundation Courses, International Tourism, International Education and Music, and other, and offers 56 undergraduate majors. Qiongzhou University () is located at 1 Yucai Road. The only public university located in Sanya, Qiongzhou is actively pursuing more foreign enrollments, hoping to attract Chinese tourism and language students to the city. Courses offered to international students are: elementary Chinese, intermediate Chinese, advanced Chinese (listening, speaking, reading and writing), English, Russian (listening, speaking, reading and writing), Chinese calligraphy and painting,

Chinese martial arts Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms Kung fu (term), kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (sport), wushu (), are Styles of Chinese martial arts, multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. Th ...

, Chinese history, studies of Li and Miao Cultures, tourism and recreational management, and music performance.

Primary and secondary schools

The city government states on its website that "Being the second-largest city in Hainan, the education in Sanya is relatively better than the average level in Hainan Province" but that the kindergartens are not as good as those in major Chinese cities and that the primary and secondary schools are still below the Chinese national average.Education in Sanya
(). City of Sanya. Retrieved October 2, 2015. According to the city government, Primary schools No.7 and No.9 Primary School are the best ones in the city and that Bayi Primary School "is also of good quality". The city government identifies the best lower secondary (junior high school) and upper secondary (senior high school) institutions as Sanya Shiyan Middle School and Sanya No.1 High School, respectively. The International School of Sanya (formerly Canadian International School of Sanya) is the first school to offer two programs: Canadian and Mandarin, in Hainan. The school has announced its relocation to th
BanShanBanDao -Serenity Coast
() residential area in August 2014, where the new campus will offer pre-K. day students and boarding facilities for students.

Events

The city has hosted: *

Boao Forum for Asia The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA; ), initiated by 25 Asian countries and Australia (increased to 28 in 2006), is a non-profit organisation that hosts high-level forums for leaders from government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to ...

Annual high level forums for world leaders focused on the Asian region and its stakeholders.
2014 WTTC Global Summit
Keynote speakers:

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and CE ...

, Dame DeAnne Julius,

Yao Ming Yao Ming (; born September 12, 1980) is a Chinese basketball executive and former professional player. He played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Associat ...

* 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 Start to Auckland * 2011 BRICS summit *

Elite Model Look Elite Model Look (formerly known as Look of the Year from 1983 to 1995) is a yearly fashion modeling event held by Elite Model Management, an international model management group. It is used to discover and launch female fashion models in the int ...

in 2008 and 2009 *

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss Int ...

contest in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Mister World The Mister World competition is a male beauty pageant sponsored by the Miss World Organisation. The competition was founded in 1996. The entrants compete in various activities including waterskiing, mountain biking, and marathon running. The cu ...

contest in

World's Strongest Man The World's Strongest Man is an international Strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decembe ...

contest in 2006 and 2013 *2012 Sanya International Beach Musical Festival *

2013 ITF Women's Circuit – Sanya The 2013 ITF Women's Circuit – Sanya was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the third edition of the tournament which was part of the 2013 ITF Women's Circuit, offering a total of $50,000 in prize money. It to ...

* 2014–15 Volvo Ocean Race In-port race and Leg 4 Start to Auckland *

FIA Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, who is ...

Sanya ePrix from

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

* 2020 Asian Beach Games

Sister cities

Gallery

File:Sanya Sunset photo by Dale Preston.jpg, Sanya Sunset File:Sanya Beach_Photo by Dale Preston.jpg, Setting Sun at Sanya Beach File:Hainan Sanya 2.jpg, East part of Sanya File:Sanya River.JPG,

Sanya River Sanya River (Chinese: 三亚河) is located in the southern part of Hainan Province, China. It runs from the Shuiyaunchi Reservoir south through Sanya where it discharges into Sanya Bay __NOTOC__ Sanya Bay () is one of the five major bays in Sa ...

File:Sanya beach scene.jpg, Beach Scene File:HainanSanya5.jpg, Sunset at Sanya Bay File:HainanSanya3.jpg, A hotel in Sanya File:Sanya bay sea beach.JPG, Sanya Bay Beach File:People in Sanya.JPG, A street corner

References

External links

Guanyin of the South Sea of Sanya article
— ''with pictures, author confuses "Buddha" and "Guanyin".''
Whatsonsanya.com: News, travel, business and cultural guide to Sanya and Hainan Province
{{Authority control Cities in Hainan Prefecture-level divisions of Hainan