Luoyang Departure: Sanya, Yalong Bay and Tianya Haijiao, 5 Days 4 Nights
Five days from Luoyang. Twenty-eight degrees in November and the sea still warm. The sand at Yalong Bay is white and fine enough to sink into. Nothing is scheduled in a hurry: swim in the morning, sleep through the hot hours, walk the shore at dusk.
Highlights
Day 1: Luoyang to Sanya
Leave in the morning and land at Phoenix airport around midday. Hot wind at the terminal door and the padded coat comes straight off. Check in at Yalong Bay with a balcony facing the sea. In the evening walk the beach, the sand fine enough that a foot sinks half in, the water warm, a wet line left along the shore as the tide pulls back. Dinner at the hotel, light on the first night.
Attraction introduction: Yalong Bay lies about twenty-five kilometres southeast of Sanya, a crescent with roughly seven kilometres of beach. The sand is mostly quartz, white and fine, and the bay is shallow and sheltered, which makes it good for swimming.
Tips: The sun is fierce enough to burn on the first day, so use factor fifty and above. Guests generally find hotel dining expensive and the nearby villages cheaper. In practice, buy water and fruit from the village shops and keep the hotel for breakfast.
Day 2: A full day at Yalong Bay
On the beach at seven. Few people, small waves, water clear enough to see your own feet. Swim, come out and dry off, go back in. Return to the room at midday and sleep through the two hottest hours. Out again at four and walk east along the sand to the rocks at the end, where small shells collect in the gaps. Sit on the beach in the evening and watch the sun go into the water.
Attraction introduction: The sand at Yalong Bay is among the best in Hainan; no large river enters the bay, so the water carries little sediment and stays clear. Coral grows off the eastern side, and the intertidal zone is worth looking at when the tide is out.
Tips: Swim only where there are lifeguards, and stay out when the red flag is up. Guests generally find beach chairs are chargeable and hotel chairs are for guests only. In practice, bring a hotel towel and a dry bag rather than renting.
Day 3: Tianya Haijiao, then Sanya Bay
Morning at Tianya Haijiao, walking in along the shore. The Pillar of the Southern Sky comes first, then the two great boulders carved with the characters for the end of the earth and the corner of the sea, cut in the Yongzheng era of the Qing. Coconut palms line the beach and the swell breaks on the rocks when the wind is up. Lunch outside the gate. Move to Sanya Bay in the afternoon, and walk the coconut promenade in the evening, seventeen kilometres of palms along the water with half the city running on it.
Attraction introduction: Tianya Haijiao lies west of Sanya, with granite boulders scattered along the shore. The inscriptions date from the Qing and the early republic and the site is one of the best-known landmarks in Hainan. The Coconut Dream Corridor runs about seventeen kilometres along Sanya Bay.
Tips: The carved boulders involve a queue for photographs. Guests generally find the site hot and shadeless by ten. In practice, go at opening and be out by half past ten.
Day 4: Nanshan and the sea Guanyin
Morning at Nanshan. The park is large, so take the shuttle to the sea Guanyin first: three faces, 108 metres, standing in the water, and the walkway out to it makes you smaller with every step. Then the gold and jade Guanyin and the Nanshan temple, built against the slope and facing the South China Sea. Vegetarian lunch inside the park. Back to town in the afternoon for the First Market, where seafood is bought live and cooked at the stalls behind.
Attraction introduction: The Nanshan cultural park lies in Yazhou district and covers about fifty square kilometres. The sea Guanyin stands 108 metres with three faces holding a bead, a lotus and a sutra box, consecrated in 2005. Nanshan temple was built in 1998.
Tips: The park is big enough that walking it means twenty thousand steps; the shuttle is worth it. Guests generally find the vegetarian kitchen busy at midday. In practice, see the Guanyin early and the temple late, when the light comes off the sea.
Day 5: Return
No alarm. One more walk on the beach. Bags at half past nine, leave at ten, twenty minutes to the airport from Sanya Bay. Midday flight, Luoyang by evening.
Attraction introduction: Phoenix airport sits west of Sanya about fourteen kilometres from the city centre and is the air hub for southern Hainan.
Tips: Mangoes and wax apples cannot go in hand luggage and have to be checked. Guests generally find security queues long in high season. In practice, allow two clear hours before departure.
Related Tours
Luoyang Departure: Shanghai Disneyland, the Bund and Zhujiajiao, 5 Days 4 Nights
Five days from Luoyang. November is the quiet season at the park and queues for the big rides are half as long, so a two-day ticket covers everything. The Bund lights up at six, and at dawn nobody is on the Zhujiajiao bridge but the boats.
Luoyang Departure: Shangri-La and Meili Snow Mountain, 5 Days 4 Nights
Five days from Luoyang. November is the dry season in northwest Yunnan. Just before sunrise the summit of Kawagarbo turns red, then gold, then white. The meadows at Pudacuo have gone yellow, the lake stays clear, and the great prayer wheel needs ten people to turn.
Luoyang Departure: Sanqingshan, Wangxiangu and Huangling, 4 Days 3 Nights
Four days from Luoyang. In November every household in Huangling is still drying chillies and chrysanthemums on bamboo trays across the roofs, the granite pillars of Sanqingshan push up through cloud, and Wangxiangu lights up at half past six, the whole slope at once.
Luoyang Departure: Fenghuang, Furong Town and Aizhai Bridge, 4 Days 3 Nights
Four days from Luoyang. The mist on the Tuo River lifts only after seven, stilt houses stand in the water with a boat sliding past, the Furong waterfall drops through the middle of the town and is lit at night, and Aizhai bridge hangs over the gorge with cloud moving below it.