At Wuzhizhou Island in Sanya, October 6 brought the usual sea breezes across the pier while the beach below was busy with holidaymakers.
Rather than heading to the sand, tourists Yang Yanrong and Lin Nuo went to a jetty to board the Jiaozi and try the island’s newly launched underwater sightseeing experience.
They had visited Sanya several times before and had already experienced its beaches, coconut palms and turquoise waters. This time, they wanted to see what lay beneath the surface.
No oxygen tank or diving training was needed. Seated in a sightseeing cabin, the two slowly descended underwater. Voices from shore and the sound of waves faded, giving way to an unusual calm.
Through wide cabin windows, the water changed from bright translucent blue to a deeper hue. Coral reefs and rocks came into view. Sunlight filtered through the water, creating rippling light and shadow, while small fish darted in and out of coral crevices.
“It is like the underwater world I used to see in documentaries is suddenly right in front of me,” Lin said, holding up his phone and occasionally lowering his voice as if afraid to disturb the silence.
Yang leaned closer to the window and followed schools of fish. For her, quietly observing marine life was more relaxing than rushing to photograph popular spots on land.
Further along the coast at Baifu Bay, diving enthusiasts took a more direct approach, putting on their gear and entering the water themselves.
Underwater, many were surprised. Soft corals that often remain contracted at other times of the year had opened, as if for a special National Day holiday display. Pink, orange and purple tentacles swayed with the current and spread across the reef like a vast flower garden blooming on the seafloor.
Divers observed leather soft corals and brightly colored dendronephthya soft corals growing on a reef at Baifu Bay on October 5.
Schools of sardines were even more striking. Vast swarms of silver fish circled through the water, sometimes forming shimmering clouds before scattering and streaming past divers from all directions.
Surrounded by fish and coral, many visitors slowed their breathing and took in the living sea. Regular divers in the area said encountering such flourishing coral and large schools of sardines was a rare and welcome surprise during the holiday.
For most tourists, the experience aboard the Jiaozi lowers the barrier to exploring the underwater world. Many people are fascinated by the sea but cannot dive. Now, seated in an underwater sightseeing cabin, they can come face to face with a real marine ecosystem without the physical demands of a deep dive.
The “underwater flower garden” at Baifu Bay is a natural result of the marine ecosystem’s gradual recovery. Long-term coral conservation and environmental management have provided favorable conditions for soft corals to thrive and have attracted schools of fish to the area.
Together, innovative tourism experiences and an improving marine environment are creating a distinctive underwater attraction.
More visitors like Yang and Lin are no longer content simply to stand on the shore and gaze at the sea. For them, the new frontier lies beneath its surface, and they spend more time immersing themselves in a destination and experiencing it up close.
From the shore to the depths, Sanya is turning its marine resources into accessible, immersive holiday experiences, letting the ocean’s allure extend far beyond the beach.