Experience the best of Sanya

Sanya occupies the south coast of Hainan, China's tropical island province, where winters are warm enough for swimming. The city runs along several bays: Dadonghai is lined with beachfront cafés, Sanya Bay has a long promenade, and Yalong Bay to the east is a wide white-sand crescent with resorts behind it. Tianya Haijiao, a beach strewn with giant boulders, takes its name from a phrase meaning edge of the sky, corner of the sea.

At Nanshan, a temple park on the coast, the 108-metre Guanyin of Nanshan stands on an artificial island joined to the shore, with three faces, one turned inland and two towards the water. Wuzhizhou Island has coral and diving offshore, and the Luhuitou hill gives a view over Sanya Bay. Inland, the Li and Miao peoples live in villages in the forested mountains.

Seafood is the local pride, with steamed fish and prawns chosen live at the harbourside, alongside Hainan classics such as Hele crab and Wenchang chicken with rice, coconut sweets and tropical fruit such as mango, longan and jackfruit. Winter, from November to March, is the busy season; summers are hot and wet, and typhoons pass in late summer and autumn.