Discovering China's own Hawaii
Dadonghai's shore is lined with a strip of bars-cum-restaurants offering local seafood and Russian dishes, as seaside tourists overwhelmingly hail from China's chilly northern neighbor. They also blat Russian techno toward the surf at ear-splitting decibel levels.
Beach bums with big bucks usually head for Yalong Bay, an 8 km crescent shoreline cordoned off by upscale resorts that use fencing to enforce exclusive-access policies. In the language of the local Li ethnic minority, the name means "as clean and white as jade" and its waters are said to maintain a year-round temperature of 26 C.
According to local folklore, the beach is the incarnation of seven Li girls who hurled themselves into the sea to demonstrate the power of their love.
Yalong played host to last year's Miss World and Mr World pageants. Contestants enjoyed the amenities of the luxurious Crowne Plaza Hotel, Yalong's largest internationally branded establishment and often acclaimed as the top hotel on the bay.
The sprawling complex, constructed in dynastic Shaanxi-styled architecture, has the only supermarket in the entire Yalong area - otherwise, it's about an hour's drive to the nearest convenience store. Crowne Plaza also has a shopping center with 18 shops, 20 restaurants, a beachside bar and a plaza hosting live musical performances nightly.
Visitors hoping to dip their toes in Chinese culture on the country's shoreline can visit the beaches of the Nanshan Culture Tourist Zone, about a half-hour drive from Sanya.
The best strand here is located in the shadow of the towering three-faced Guanyin Buddha statue, which stands several dozen meters offshore, seemingly keeping guard over the zone's Buddhism Culture Park. At 108 m tall, the bronze figure claims 15 m on the Statue of Liberty.
Tucked in the thicket near the statue, and just a stone's throw from the beach, is a cluster of tree houses that resembles an Ewok settlement. But rather than being home to the pint-sized, bear-like buddies of the Star Wars heroes, these rustic structures cater to tourists with a penchant for Robinson Crusoe-type holidays.
This beach features particularly young, coarse sands and rather steep sandbars. It is generally devoid of tourists and it's especially easy to spend several days here without encountering an obviously foreign face.
Those seeking the island's remotest beach should head to Shimei Bay, in the southeastern coastal city of Wanning, 160 km from Haikou, the provincial capital. The World Tourism Organization has called this spot "the most beautiful unexploited beach in Hainan".
A 4,000-year-old evergreen forest traces the foreshore of the two crescent bays. Li fishing hovels are scattered like throws of dice around the area, and the ungroomed foreshore is ideal for beachcombing.
Hainan's beachscapes certainly offer something for everyone; it's little wonder that a swelling tide of travelers is flocking to its shores.