Sanya Travel Guide: Wuzhizhou Island, Tianya Haijiao & Hainan Visa-Free Entry

🎫 Islands, water parks and mountain parks: buy before you go

Sanya's headline paid sights run on online-first ticketing with real-name entry. Wuzhizhou Island sells admission and ferry together as one 门船票; the Yalong Bay rainforest park sells ticket plus shuttle car; Atlantis sells waterpark tickets on its own site and does not publish the seasonal fare.

What you need to know

• Wuzhizhou Island: the official site sells 门票+往返船票 (admission + round-trip ferry) from CNY 136 per adult, with half-price tickets at CNY 68 for children 7–18, visitors 60–69 and full-time students; children of 1.2 m or under / 6 and under travel free. The official 门船票 notes name the Chinese ID card and the order QR code for check-in, so foreign visitors should confirm passport check-in on 400-114-6666 before travelling.
• Wuzhizhou Island sailings: boats go out 8:30–16:00 and come back 9:00–19:30; the gate is open 08:30–19:30. Timings move with sea state and weather, so treat the day's notice as final.
• Wuzhizhou Island refunds: a refund request must be submitted no later than the day of the visit; later requests cannot be processed. Pregnant women, visitors over 70 and people with heart or blood-pressure conditions are not allowed to board.
• Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park: ticket + round-trip shuttle car is CNY 140 per person in low season (1 May–30 Sep) and CNY 158 in high season (1 Oct–30 Apr). Children 1.2 m or under, visitors 70 and over, serving military, disabled visitors and holders of a senior card travel free with valid ID; students and 60–69-year-olds pay half.
• Forest park safety rule: the mountain trail closes at 16:00 every day (all day in thunderstorms) because a return walk takes at least four hours; if you enter after 13:00 the park advises buying the shuttle car ticket or coming another day.
• Atlantis Sanya Aquaventure: open daily 10:00–18:00 according to the official prices page, with closing time changed by season and 20:00 still shown on the resort's Chinese water-park page; check on the day. Height rule: guests over 1.5 m must buy an adult ticket, and some rides require a height above 1.22 m. Cabanas cost CNY 198/298 (family), 269/398 (premium) and 398/588 (regal) by half-day/full-day.
• Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone: open 08:00–17:00 with ticket sales 08:00–17:00. The official ticket notice lists free entry for children 1.2 m or under or 6 and under, visitors 70 and over, disabled visitors, journalists, serving military and firefighters (valid ID required); concession fares are published as high/low season pairs (students CNY 64/54, visitors 60–65 CNY 105/86, visitors 65–69 CNY 64/54), with high season 1 October–30 April and low season 1 May–30 September.

How to book

• Wuzhizhou Island official site wuzhizhou.com/ticket (官方直营) Passport accepted

  Choose the date, then the 门船票 product (adult / student / child / senior); the ticket includes admission and the round-trip ferry. Check-in uses the order QR code or the Chinese ID card, so ask the hotline 400-114-6666 to confirm a passport can be used before you pay.

• Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park — official site ticket page, with booking through the park's own Alitrip (Fliggy) shop Passport accepted

  The 票价信息 page publishes walk-up prices and the 门票预订 button opens the park's official online shop. Bring the passport as photo ID for free or half-price categories; if the online shop rejects a foreign card or passport number, buy at the park's ticket window on the day.

• Atlantis Sanya official site atlantissanya.com (Book — Tickets and other purchases) Passport accepted

  Waterpark tickets and add-ons are sold on the resort's own booking pages; cabana and AquaXpress express-pass prices are not fixed online (inquire on site or by phone).

Sources

• https://www.wuzhizhou.com/ticket/
• https://www.ylwpark.com/notices/ticket.html
• https://www.atlantissanya.com/marine-and-waterpark/prices
• http://www.nanshan.com/nanshan/gpxz.html

🆓 Free sights that still need a reservation

Sanya has been dismantling ticket walls on state-owned sights: Luhuitou (from 1 July 2022), Xiaodongtian (from 1 October 2022) and Tianya Haijiao (from 1 June 2023) now charge nothing for the first ticket. Free does not mean walk-in, though — Tianya Haijiao asks every visitor to reserve by real name, and the reservation, not the payment, is what you have to arrange.

What you need to know

• The city bays are open public shoreline: the Sanya Tourism Board presents Sanya Bay (15 minutes from the airport), Dadonghai (25 minutes) and Yalong Bay (30 minutes) as free public beaches. You pay only for what you rent or ride — loungers, parasols and showers on hotel-managed stretches, and every water sport from snorkelling to jet skis.
• Tianya Haijiao has charged CNY 0 since 1 June 2023 for both Chinese and foreign visitors, announced by the Sanya municipal government and the Hainan provincial government; the scenic area's own guide repeats 门票 0元.
• Entry is by real-name reservation: book a 0-yuan ticket on WeChat, Meituan or Alipay by searching 天涯海角游览区, then verify entry with the original passport or other valid ID. If a platform asks for a mainland ID number only, call 0898-88910131.
• Tianya Haijiao hours are seasonal: 1 March–30 September 08:00–18:30; 1 October–end of February 08:00–18:00.
• Inside Tianya Haijiao the walking loop is about 5.5 km and takes roughly 90 minutes; the optional sightseeing car comes in three grades at CNY 25, CNY 68 and CNY 98, all round trip, and paid activities such as the paraglider, dolphin swing and go-karts are separate.
• Luhuitou Scenic Area (08:00–22:30) and Xiaodongtian (08:30–17:30) are the other two free state-owned sights; Luhuitou is the city hilltop for sunset over three bays, Xiaodongtian is the coastal rock-and-cave park near Nanshan.
• Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone is not free: admission is charged, and the official notice repeats year-round that entry is checked with the visitor's own ID document or a ticket.

How to book

• WeChat / Meituan / Alipay: search 天涯海角游览区 and take the 0元购票 entry Passport accepted

  Pick a date and a time band, register by real name, keep the QR code, and show the passport at the gate with the booking. The scenic area also runs its own WeChat ticket account from its website.

• On-site ticket office and information desk at Tianya Haijiao Passport accepted

  The fallback when a Chinese booking platform will not accept a passport: staff at the gate can register a 0-yuan entry for a foreign visitor. Telephone 0898-88910131.

• Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone — ticket office (08:00–17:00) and the official WeChat ticket account linked from nanshan.com Passport accepted

  Nanshan is not free and publishes no online English booking page; the official notice says entry is verified with the visitor's own ID document or a ticket, so show your passport at the ticket window. Concession fares for students, 60–69s and 65–69s must be validated in person with valid ID.

Sources

• https://www.sanya.gov.cn/sanyasite/xwzxlytgj/202305/8e980db89e1b43c2a2d21f50bd16544d.shtml
• https://www.hainan.gov.cn/hainan/wxts/202305/1d4088a0b41346d28ef16dc05277d0bc.shtml
• http://aitianya.cn/index.php?s=/Category/info/catid/22/id/1377.html
• https://www.visitsanya.com/en/destination/tianya-haijiao
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/destination/%E4%BA%9A%E9%BE%99%E6%B9%BE
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/destination/%E5%A4%A7%E4%B8%9C%E6%B5%B7
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/destination/%E4%B8%89%E4%BA%9A%E6%B9%BE

ℹ️ General rules in Sanya

Sanya's booking layers stack in a fixed order: visa-free entry first (the Hainan policy is regional, so the whole trip stays inside the island), then the arrival card, then the sight reservation, then payment. Sanya's public beaches and the rainforest are the only things you can simply walk into; everything headline-level needs a real-name booking and a passport.

What you need to know

• Hainan visa-free entry, matching the ChinaPass help page: citizens of 61 countries may enter Hainan province without a visa for up to 30 days through any of Hainan's open ports (Haikou Meilan, Sanya Phoenix, Qionghai Boao and the cruise ports) for tourism, business, visits, family matters, medical treatment, conventions or sports.
• The 61-country policy confines the whole stay to Hainan province — no side trip to Beijing or Shanghai on it — and both entry and exit must be through Hainan ports. Nationalities that qualify for Hainan but not the nationwide 50-country list include the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and Indonesia.
• Under the 61-country visa-free entry you must still file an electronic arrival card; foreign permanent-resident card holders, group-visa travellers, 24-hour direct transit passengers and cruise passengers returning on the same ship are exempt. File it free on the National Immigration Administration site, the 移民局12367 app or the WeChat/Alipay mini program, or use the self-service kiosks and free Wi-Fi in the arrivals hall at SYX.
• Passports work as the booking document at these sights, but several systems still default to the mainland ID card. Where an app or mini program refuses a passport number, call the sight's hotline or use the on-site service window — do not buy from a scalper or a non-official reseller.
• Payment: binding a foreign Visa/Mastercard to Alipay or WeChat Pay is the recommended route and covers almost everything, including street food; hotel front desks, duty-free shops and chain supermarkets also take foreign cards, foreign e-wallets such as Korea's Naver Pay or Thailand's K PLUS scan Alipay/UnionPay QR codes directly, and UnionPay's 旅行通卡 (Travel Card) is a prepaid option if you would rather not bind your main card. Carry some cash for small stalls and top up before remote day trips.
• Taxi fallback when a QR code will not work: Sanya is piloting the Hainan 放心付 NFC tap-to-pay service for taxis, where a contactless card or Apple Pay is tapped against the driver's phone; otherwise pay cash or use the Didi app with an international card.
• Booking a hotel registers you automatically; if you stay in a private apartment or with friends, register at a local police station within 24 hours of arrival.
• Typhoon rule: the Sanya Tourism Board warns of occasional typhoons in August–September and publishes a bad-weather page — in a warning, stop all water activities, leave the sea and the beach, and check the day's notices, because island ferries and the forest park's trail can both close.
• Getting around: 132 bus routes run roughly 06:00–23:00 with fares from CNY 2 to about CNY 12, paid by scanning the 三亚天涯行乘车码 in Alipay or WeChat; the tram is a flat CNY 3; the airport bus ticket office is opposite Gate 5; and around 60 resort hotels in Sanya Bay, Yalong Bay and Haitang Bay run free shuttle buses for guests.
• “Passport Friendly” (护照友好): a Sanya Tourism Board programme for inbound visitors run with roughly 45 merchants, open to holders of a valid foreign passport or a Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan travel permit. Post one original Sanya post abroad with the official hashtag #GoChinaInSanya, then collect a benefits pack that stacks discounts at duty-free stores, hotels, sights and malls — Tianya Haijiao lists, for example, 20% off coffee and 15% off travel photography.
• Airport and rail, for arrival planning: Sanya Phoenix International is coded SYX and lies 11 km from the centre with its own high-speed-rail station (凤凰机场站) linked to the terminal; Hainan's ring railway also stops at Sanya station (city centre), Yalong Bay station (the resort bays) and Yazhou station (the old town). Coming from Haikou Meilan (HAK) takes about 1h40 by train, and from Qionghai Boao about 1 hour.

Sources

• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E8%A1%8C%E5%89%8D%E5%87%86%E5%A4%87/%E5%87%BA%E5%85%A5%E5%A2%83%E4%B8%8E%E7%AD%BE%E8%AF%81
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E5%AE%9E%E7%94%A8%E9%94%A6%E5%9B%8A/%E8%B4%A7%E5%B8%81%E4%B8%8E%E6%94%AF%E4%BB%98
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E6%8A%B5%E8%BE%BE%E4%B8%8E%E4%BA%A4%E9%80%9A
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E6%8A%B5%E8%BE%BE%E4%B8%8E%E4%BA%A4%E9%80%9A/%E4%B9%98%E7%81%AB%E8%BD%A6%E8%BD%AE%E6%B8%A1
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E6%8A%B5%E8%BE%BE%E4%B8%8E%E4%BA%A4%E9%80%9A/%E5%85%AC%E5%85%B1%E4%BA%A4%E9%80%9A
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E5%AE%9E%E7%94%A8%E9%94%A6%E5%9B%8A/%E6%9E%81%E7%AB%AF%E5%A4%A9%E6%B0%94
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E5%AE%9E%E7%94%A8%E9%94%A6%E5%9B%8A/%E5%9C%B0%E7%90%86%E4%B8%8E%E6%B0%94%E5%80%99
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E8%A1%8C%E7%A8%8B%E8%A7%84%E5%88%92/%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97/%E8%A1%8C%E5%89%8D%E5%87%86%E5%A4%87/%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%B3%E6%97%85%E8%A1%8C%E6%97%B6%E9%97%B4
• https://www.visitsanya.com/zh/%E6%8A%A4%E7%85%A7%E5%8F%8B%E5%A5%BD%E8%AE%A1%E5%88%92