Sanya Overview

Sanya city is located at the southern-most tip of Hainan Island of China. It lies in the southern valley of the Wuzhi Mountain range with the population of about 524,000.

 History
The ancient name of Sanya is Yazhou or Yaxian, which can be dated back to Han Dynasty. During that time, the government established Zhuya County, then Sui Dynasty set Linzhen and later Tang Dynasty changed it to Zhenzhou for today's Sanya. By Song Dynasty Sanya had become the southernmost county of China.
Yaxian County was set in April 1950, and the county government was established at that time as well. Approved by the State Council of China, Yaxian was upgraded to Sanya City on September 26, 1987. And on December 30 in the same year, Sanya city was officially named.

Culture and religions
Sanya has cultivated a colorful folk culture and art, and due to the long history and the multiple inhabitations, she has also developed rich local handicrafts and religious culture. The local culture and art of Sanya consists of fairy tales, legends, folk dances, folk music, sculpture, gardening, religion and handicrafts.

Sanya folk weaving has been enjoying a long history and been well known either home or abroad. It includes both the cloth weaving and the bamboo weaving. Cloth weaving is represented by cotton weaving by Li covers, bags and skirts, all known for elaborate patterns and colorful figures. Bamboo strips need be processed in many operations including scraping and polishing before they can be woven into delicate handicrafts of different shapes serving different purposes.
Sanya folk art is represented by dances and songs of Li people and Miao people. Their dancing poses all come from the basic motions for hunting and farming and the accompanying melodies all originated from local folk ballads.

In addition to Chinese traditional festivals Sanya has her own festivals; Junpo Festival is the biggest festival of local Han People after Chinese New Year to worship the national heroine called Madam Xian. It lasts for four days from February.9th to 12th. During these days, Hainan people always dress up in military uniform and perform lion dances and singing. The Sanyuesan Festival, which has the name of March Third Festival as well is the traditional festival of the Li and Miao minorities in the Hainan Island. It takes place on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month of the year. This is the chance for the young girls and young boys to get together for dancing and singing. As a result, young people will look for their beloved ones by singing and dancing competition.

The major religions in Sanya are Buddhism, such as Taoism, Islamism and Christianity. The South Mountain Buddhism Culture Garden is very influential as a representative of Buddhism worship and tourism center. The Christian is located on the Xinmin Street, Hongsha Town. In additional to these churches, there are also six mosques (for the local Sunni Muslims) in Fenghuang Town.