Yalong Bay National Holiday Resort
8 min readThe beautiful scenery ahead we are going to visit is Yalong Bay National Holiday Resort.Yalong Bay is in the shape of a crescent and it is 25 kilometers away from downtown Sanya.Just decades ago，Yalong Bay was simply a wild and unknown place in China.This natural wonder’s unparalleled beauty inspired the government to create the world’s first national attraction.Therefore，Yalong Bay started to be built in 1992 with the approval of the State Council.And now it has become the most charming，picturesque setting，which is the only national tropical tourism attraction.It has a total area of 18.6 square kilometers including the area of beach.The bay got its present name in June 1992 from the translation of an accent of Li people.The original name was”Ya Long Bay”.In Chinese the word”Long”stands for dragon，and”Ya”for Asia.Therefore，Yalong Bay was considered either as the bay of dragon both in Sanya and in Asia.The bay was born to be a place with such a charming picturesque setting，so it has gained the fame”the first bay under theheaven”.In 1994，Savignac，the Secretary General of United Nations World Tourism Organization，was deeply attracted by the beautiful landscape after visiting Yalong Bay and wrote:”Yalong Bay is a genuine heaven with the advantageous natural conditions，the silver sand beach，the limpid sea water，the continuous exquisite seashore，and unpolluted mountain and land which has the primitive rough vegetation.”
Yalong Bay is surrounded on three sides by mountains covered with original evergreen plants, with one side open to the calm sea like a new moon. The sea beach is even and wide, extending over 7 kilometers with shallow water along the coast of 50-60 meters. The sand is white, fine and soft; the sun is shining, more than 300 days of sunshine yearly; behind the bay some mountains with strange rocks are sticking out into the sky; the seawater is blue, clear, and transparent to 7.9 meters; the sea is calm, and its floor is flat without stones and minerals. In the layered clear waters, tourists can do all kinds of aquatic sports all year round, such as swimming, diving and traveling in Yalong Bay submarine world, watching coral reels and tropical fishes of different colors. Rock-climbing can be done at Jinmu Cap and Yalong Cap. In addition to enjoying the sunshine and sand beach, we can enjoy the convenience and comfort provided by some other sightseeing spots such as Central Square of Yalong Bay, the Seashell Exhibition Hall, the Butterfly Valley,a tennis club,a golf course and some luxurious hotels.
Yalong Bay is surrounded on three sides by mountains covered with original evergreen plants, with one side open to the calm sea like a new moon. The sea beach is even and wide, extending over 7 kilometers with shallow water along the coast of 50-60 meters. The sand is white, fine and soft; the sun is shining, more than 300 days of sunshine yearly; behind the bay some mountains with strange rocks are sticking out into the sky; the seawater is blue, clear, and transparent to 7.9 meters; the sea is calm, and its floor is flat without stones and minerals. In the layered clear waters, tourists can do all kinds of aquatic sports all year round, such as swimming, diving and traveling in Yalong Bay submarine world, watching coral reels and tropical fishes of different colors. Rock-climbing can be done at Jinmu Cap and Yalong Cap. In addition to enjoying the sunshine and sand beach, we can enjoy the convenience and comfort provided by some other sightseeing spots such as Central Square of Yalong Bay, the Seashell Exhibition Hall, the Butterfly Valley,a tennis club,a golf course and some luxurious hotels.
The bay was born to be a beauty as the first bay under the heaven, and was approved by China National Tourism Administration as one of the Best Scenic Spots in China in 2000. The Central Square of Yalong Bay is the symbolic building in National Resort of Yalong Bay, and covers an area of over thousand square meters. The opening ceremony of the Year of National Vacation in China in 1996 was held at this square, whose construction was completed at the end of December 1995, including a variety of functional buildings. The sculptures of totem in the square is the highlight scene, with the 27-meter-high Totem Pole in the center surrounded by three circles of sculptures of totem, altogether 24 of them, to represent the Chinese traditional culture about the world with the ancient legends. Totem Pole is made up of 200 blocks of huge granite with a column of aluminium foil in the center, which is 2.5 meters in diameter. And the 24 sculptures of totem cover an area of 1,256 square meters, with the patterns of dragon, phoenix, sun bird, fish and the gods who are the wind, rain, thunder and electricity. The first circle of the sculptures around the Totem Pole is the sculptures of dragons, tigers, birds and so on. The second circle separately expresses the ancient mythologies, such as Pan Gu Created the Universe with His Huge Axes; Chinese Beauty Chang’e Flies to the Moon, the Herd-boy and the Weaving Girl, Hou Yi Shot at the Sun by Arrowand so on. The third circle reflects 8 Chinese ancient gods about astronomy, human beings, animals, plants and all other living things.
The Seashell Exhibition Hall is situated in the Central Square of Yalong Bay, covering an area of 3,000 square meters, and it is the first exhibition hall in China with seashells and clams as its theme. In the Seashell Exhibition Hall, there are more than 300 different kinds of seashells and clams on the show from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, etc., such as the colorful dendriform coral, the attractive viridis Haliotis diversicolor reeve, the chaste angel wing clam, the gorgeous Australian scallop, the renowned living fossil Hirase’s Slit shell, and the nautilus, etc.
The Butterfly Valley is a unique construction in the shape of butterflies, covering an area of 1.5 hectares. As the first and biggest garden for butterflies in China, it was opened to the public in December 1997. There are altogether five sections according to the shape of butterflies, including the net-garden o butterflies, the eco-quarter for butterfly admiration, sample exhibition hall breeding garden and the butterfly arts and crafts workshop. The Butterfly Valley is located in a quite tropical rainforest, with mountains around, streams down below, bridges in the valley, butterflies everywhere, which make it a real butterfly theme garden. Besides the butterfly, the valley itself is also an exquisite scenic spot.
The bay was born to be a beauty as the first bay under the heaven, and was approved by China National Tourism Administration as one of the Best Scenic Spots in China in 2000. The Central Square of Yalong Bay is the symbolic building in National Resort of Yalong Bay, and covers an area of over thousand square meters. The opening ceremony of the Year of National Vacation in China in 1996 was held at this square, whose construction was completed at the end of December 1995, including a variety of functional buildings. The sculptures of totem in the square is the highlight scene, with the 27-meter-high Totem Pole in the center surrounded by three circles of sculptures of totem, altogether 24 of them, to represent the Chinese traditional culture about the world with the ancient legends. Totem Pole is made up of 200 blocks of huge granite with a column of aluminium foil in the center, which is 2.5 meters in diameter. And the 24 sculptures of totem cover an area of 1,256 square meters, with the patterns of dragon, phoenix, sun bird, fish and the gods who are the wind, rain, thunder and electricity. The first circle of the sculptures around the Totem Pole is the sculptures of dragons, tigers, birds and so on. The second circle separately expresses the ancient mythologies, such as Pan Gu Created the Universe with His Huge Axes; Chinese Beauty Chang’e Flies to the Moon, the Herd-boy and the Weaving Girl, Hou Yi Shot at the Sun by Arrowand so on. The third circle reflects 8 Chinese ancient gods about astronomy, human beings, animals, plants and all other living things.
The Seashell Exhibition Hall is situated in the Central Square of Yalong Bay, covering an area of 3,000 square meters, and it is the first exhibition hall in China with seashells and clams as its theme. In the Seashell Exhibition Hall, there are more than 300 different kinds of seashells and clams on the show from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean and South China Sea, etc., such as the colorful dendriform coral, the attractive viridis Haliotis diversicolor reeve, the chaste angel wing clam, the gorgeous Australian scallop, the renowned living fossil Hirase’s Slit shell, and the nautilus, etc.
The Butterfly Valley is a unique construction in the shape of butterflies, covering an area of 1.5 hectares. As the first and biggest garden for butterflies in China, it was opened to the public in December 1997. There are altogether five sections according to the shape of butterflies, including the net-garden o butterflies, the eco-quarter for butterfly admiration, sample exhibition hall breeding garden and the butterfly arts and crafts workshop. The Butterfly Valley is located in a quite tropical rainforest, with mountains around, streams down below, bridges in the valley, butterflies everywhere, which make it a real butterfly theme garden. Besides the butterfly, the valley itself is also an exquisite scenic spot.
With the huge stainless steel network,a natural environment is built for butterflies, and through the iron doors, comes the butterfly garden, which is a part of the Butterfly Valley. The very thing that differs from a modern garden is that most famous trees grew originally here such as the living fossil Longevity pines or dragon tree, the graceful Banyan, the thick-bark trees as well as other odd trees, vines, flowers and grasses.A clear natural environment has bred various and abundant butterflies. Besides the bridge and the water in this garden, millions of butterflies are flying around and showing the beauty andthe vitality of the natural world. There comes the butterfly-breeding garden, covering an area of 200 square meters, which enjoys the lively and merry mating phenomenon of living things and the strong natural life as well. And the next one is the butterfly sample exhibition hall, which is built for visitors to appreciate. In the hall there are more than 500 different famous butterflies and insects from all over the world, including Parnassius apollo, Teinopalpus aureus and other well known butterflies and insects in the world.
Yalong Bay is such a charming picturesque setting that no other places could compare with it. People who have traveled here are deeply attracted by its beauty. The comfortable facilities, the advanced multi-functions of sightseeing, recreation, and the good services provided have made it a real paradise for tourists both at home and abroad.
