Sanya, China's Tropical South

Sanya sits at the southern tip of Hainan, closer to Hanoi than to Shanghai, and it is where China goes for winter sun — palms, dry-season warmth in January and a coastline of crescent bays. Yalong Bay is the long one, some seven kilometres of pale sand and calm water lined with resorts; Dadonghai is the busy, swimmable city beach; and Sanya Bay runs beside a coconut-lined boulevard toward the fishing harbour. Offshore, Wuzhizhou Island draws snorkellers and first-time divers to reefs that are shallow, warm and forgiving.

Inland the landscape turns green and steep. Yanoda Rainforest Park hangs walkways through tropical valley forest, and the Li and Miao villages of the interior keep brocade weaving, nose-flute music and betel-nut groves. West along the coast, Nanshan Temple faces the sea beneath a 108-metre statue of Guanyin standing on a causeway in the water, and the inscribed boulders of Tianya Haijiao — the edge of the sky, the rim of the sea — mark the spot exiled officials once took for the end of the empire. Luhuitou Park climbs the headland to a deer statue and the best sunset view over the whole bay.

Eat seafood chosen live and cooked by weight at the night markets, plus coconut chicken hotpot, Wenchang chicken with ginger rice and cold coconuts by the roadside. The dry season from November to April is why people come; summer brings heat and typhoons. Sanya works best as a beach coda to a broader journey through China.