Sanya, China
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Sanya; also spelled Samah is the southernmost city on
Hainan Island Hainan is an island province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally means "South of the Sea ...
, and one of the four
prefecture-level cities A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...
of
Hainan Province Hainan is an island province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally means "South of the Sea" ...
in
South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) 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 ...
. 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 to four players each 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 o ...
team. Sanya is home to small concentrations of Utsul people. Sanya is also the location of Yulin Naval Base, 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 South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
which is home to the
People's Liberation Army Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy, also known as the People's Navy, PLA Navy or simply Chinese Navy, is the naval warfare military branch, branch of the People's Liberation Army, the national military of the People's Republic of China. It i ...
ballistic nuclear missile fleet.


History

Known in ancient times as Yazhou,
postal romanization Postal romanization was a system of transliterating place names in China 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 fo ...
: Aichow (), literally "cliff state or prefecture", Sanya's history dates to the
Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...
(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, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
, 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, Lingshui, Niulou, and Xinglong, Wanning, 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 The State Council of the People's Republic of China, also known as the Central People's Government, is the chief administrative authority and national cabinet. It is constitutionally the highest administrative organ of the country and the e ...
, Yaxian was upgraded to Sanya City on 26 September 1987 and Sanya City was officially established on 30 December 1987. 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 officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
torch relay in China.


Geography

Sanya lies at the southern tip of Hainan Island on Sanya Bay. Located at 18° 15' N latitude, Sanya is–after Sansha (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
South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
. The city is one of the many coastal cities in China most at risk due to rapidly rising sea levels.


Climate

The area has a tropical wet and dry climate (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''Aw''), featuring hot 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 Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...
al influences are strong, with a relatively lengthy
wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...
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 t ...
. The coolest month is January, with an average high temperature of , while the hottest, unlike much of the rest of China, is June, with an average high temperature of ; the mean annual high temperature is . Water temperatures remain above year-round. Since meteorological records began, the average annual temperature in Sanya has warmed in fluctuations. Taking 2024 as an example, the average annual temperature in Sanya is , 0.6 °C higher than the average from 1991 to 2020, with the average temperature of the coldest month (December) being and the hottest month (August) being . The mean annual high temperature i


Subdivisions

Before 30 July 2014, there was direct jurisdiction over four county-level districts and two township-level subdistricts ( zh, s=乡级管理区 , p=xiāngjí guǎnlǐqū , labels=no), six towns ( zh, s=镇 , p=zhèn , labels=no) 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 hotel opened in the Dadong Hai area, the first Mandarin Oriental property on Hainan Island. Atlantis Sanya opened in 2018, becoming the first Atlantis branded hotel in China. 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, that is located within the Nanshan Temple (Sanya). Nature reserves of Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park () and Sanya Coral Reef National Nature Reserve () are located nearby Yalong Bay, and Yalong Bay National Tourism Holiday Resort was created. In recent years, as the waters of Sanya Bay and others below mentioned are becoming clearer and healthier, several species of
dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
s, including endangered Chinese white dolphins, 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. 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; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Hoihow is the capital city, 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. ...
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, 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 Jiangang Road Station, which is currently the southernmost railway station in China. Full operation of the first line started on 10 October 2020.


Economics & 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. There are also 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.


Medical tourism

The Sanya area of Hainan offers a free trade port offering opportunities for overseas service providers to enter the local market, and it is actively developing its commercial health services industry to promote
medical tourism Medical tourism is the practice of traveling abroad to obtain medical treatment. In the past, this usually referred to those who traveled from less-developed countries to major medical centers in highly developed countries for treatment unavaila ...
. A pilot project was approved by the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
State Council in 2013 called the ''Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone'', also known by 2024 as Boao Hope City, as the only medical tourism special zone in China. Specialist medical services as well as specially licensed
drug A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via insufflation (medicine), inhalation, drug i ...
s are available in the zone. The importation of medical technologies and equipment, or drugs approved for marketing outside of China but not yet approved in China, may be used in the pilot zone with special approval of state authorities. The zone is likewise available for trials and testing. Lecheng received approximately 300,000 medical tourists in 2023, and also served some 28,000 persons who reside in the zone.


Education


Colleges and universities

Sanya University The University of Sanya (; ) is a private college in Sanya, Hainan, China. It is privately owned and operated by Geely, Geely Group. See also *List of universities and colleges in Hainan References External linksOfficial website
{{au ...
() 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, commonly referred to with 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 Ch ...
, 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 2 October 2015.
According to the city government, Primary schools No.7 and No.9 are the best 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; zh, c=博鳌亚洲论坛, p=Bó'áo Yàzhōu Lùntán), initiated by 25 Asian countries and Australia (increased to 28 in 2006), is a nonprofit that hosts high-level forums for leaders from government, business and ...
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 a ...
,
Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg ( ; born December 21, 1950) is an American media proprietor and film producer. He served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, a position in which he oversaw production and busin ...
, Dame DeAnne Julius,
Yao Ming Yao Ming ( zh, c=姚明; 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 Baske ...
* 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 Start to Auckland * 2011 BRICS summit * Elite Model Look 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, Mi ...
contest in
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
,
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 60 ...
,
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
,
2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
,
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
,
2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
,
2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
and
2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
* Mister World contest in
2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
*
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 Decemb ...
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 Sanya ePrix from
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
* 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 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


Notes


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