In order to ensure any of you, who choose Sanya to be your travel destination, to pass through the customs smoothly and have a safe journey, we provide this guidebook including useful information as on entry visa application, traffic means on trip, foreign currency exchange, internet and communications, medical treatment and health care and so on. We hope the guidebook can offer help for your journey and wish you have a safe and happy journey to Sanya!

Entry Visa (landing visa)
Applying for a visa in Sanya is very convenient. Any visitor from country or region which has established diplomatic and trade relations with the People's Republic of China may apply for and get an entry visa to Sanya when he or she entries Sanya for the purposes of tourism, visiting relatives, trading, investment etc. He or she may leaves Sanya for other domestic cities from which he or she may leave the country. Where foreign visitors stay in Sanya or are leaving Sanya for other domestic cities of China but the time limit of their visas expires, they may reapply for a visa in Sanya according to relevant formalities. It only takes several minutes to obtain an entry visa at Sanya port. At present, Sanya has been approved to offer the favorable policy of 15-day Visa Waiver Program to tourists from 21 main tourist source countries including the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Korean, Russia Australia, Thailand and other countries, but not including the USA.

Instructions on Applying for a Visa
a)       Provide a valid passport or a certificate being able to substitute a passport;
b)       Fill in a visa application form and submit a copy of two-inch, front-viewed, hat-free, and half-length personal photo.
c)       Pay visa fee. The charge varies to visitors from different countries, and the least fee is RMB160. only RMB or US dollars in cash are accepted. Foreign currency exchange service is offered at the airport.
Please note: allowable applying for a port visa does not mean you can naturally obtain a visa.

Duration Time of Visa on Arrival
If any foreign visitor has no enough time to get a visa before starting off for Sanya, or come to Sanya due to a provisional decision, after taking off the plane, he or she may go straight to the Visa on Arrival office inside the united inspection hall of Sanya Phoenix International Aiport and apply for a visa. The duration time of the visa on arrival lasts 30 days at the most for every application. Foreign visitors, who are held up in the boundary of P. R. China for a period exceeding the time limit of their visas because their visas have expired, shall be fined RMB500 for one more days stay and be written into a bad record. If you want to prolong your holiday in Sanya, you may go st5raight to the Entry-Exit Division of Sanya Public Security Bureau, which is located on Yingbin Road, Sanya city, to apply for an extension of your visa. The application for visa extension at one time can extend your visa by 30 days and you are allowed to extend your visa twice at the most in the boundary of P. R. China. After your visa is extended twice and when the time limit is due, you must have your visa transferred to a third country, but Hong Kong can helps this as well.

Precautions for Frontier Defence Inspection
l        At entry inspection, visitors on individual visas must show their passports, valid visas, and fill out the entrance registration card;
l        Visitors on group visas must show their passports, group visas and do not need fill out the entrance registration card;
l        Visitors included in a visa-free group do not need fill out the entrance registration card but must show their passports and the name list of the visa-free group, and accept the entry or exit frontier defence in the name of the names on the name list, and enter the boundary of Hainan Province as a whole group.
l        Visitors from the visa-free 21 countries to Hainan Province need note that they must hold ordinary individual passport rather than diplomatic or public affair passports.
l        The visa-free visiting group is allowed only if it consists of above 5 members, and they are only allowed to stay in Hainan Province legally for 15 days. The members of the visa-free group must enter or exit the boundary of Hainan province as a whole group.
l        Visiting members of the visa-free groups must not leave the group without authorization to travel to the cities outside Hainan province before they enter or exit the boundary of Hainan Province.

Traffic Means Trip
According to your hobby and familiar degree to Sanya, you may have a great deal of traffic options in Sanya:

Taxis
Taking a taxi is the most convenient way for your trip in Sanya. In addition, the taxi charge is extremely reasonable. Only RMB5 is charged for the initial 3 km, RMB2 per km is charged for the distance when over 3 km and RMB3 per km when over 15 km. But in legal holidays, RMB10 will be the charge for the initial ride instead of RMB5.

Public Buses
Buses are the most economical ways for going out. Sanya's public buses run through the entire city proper and the charge is only RMB1-2 for each ride. The public bus routes to the relatively far distance are specially set for tourism buses, which can reach Yalong Bay. Dadonghai, Sanya Bay, "The End of Earth(Tianya Haijiao)," Dongtian park, Nanshan Temple and other scenic spors, the charge will not be higher than RMB15 at the most.

Automobile Lease
there are two kinds of means to lease an automobile: one is to rent a car with a driver, and the other is to rent a car for your own drive. If you come to Sanya for the first time, it is advised to take the first option, if you have some knowledge about Sanya and hope to travel in a relatively independent space, self-drive is a wonderful choice. But you must find out about the relevant routes and prepare well instruments like a map before staring off.

Foreign Currency Exchange
Only banks can offer foreign currency exchange service in China generally. In Sanya, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Construction Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and China Everbright Bank all offer such service, among which Bank can offer exchange for the most foreign currencies including US dollars, Hongkong dollars, Pounds, Euros, Japanese yen, Korean yuan, Canadian dollars, Singapore dollars, Switzerland francs and many other currencies. In addition, some five-star hotels also offer the exchange at their reception desk. When you want to have your foreign currencies exchanged, you need provide your passport and one copy of the passport and fill out the form of application for foreign currency exchange. You are only allowed to exchange the amount of money not exceeding US5000 every time. Please don't exchange your foreign currencies with illegal persons at black market.
Bank Work Time: 8:30am-17:0 Monday to Friday; 10:00am-16:00 Saturdays and Sundays.

Communications
Mobile communication: You can easily solve the mobile communication issue by buying a local cell-phone card of China Mobile or China Unicom. If you need to make an international long-distance call, you need to pay a deposit of RMB2000.

Telecommunications: magnetic card telephone machines and IC telephone machines are set up in the public places like the main street corners, airport, stations, harbours, hotels, and scenic districts and so on. Telephone magnetic cards and IC cards are available on sale at business offices of Telecommunications Bureau, service windows of Telecommunications Bureau, and large hotels. In addition, there are telephone cards including 200 cards, 300 cards, 17900 cards, and IP cards on sale. Making a long-distance domestic call or an international call by using a telephone card is economical.

Express Mail Service
If you need a speedy international post service, you may choose China post express mail service (EMS). The specific work personnel of China post can provide room service. If you need a domestic service, you may contact any of the large express companies, which usually provide room service too.

China Post EMS: 86-11185 Civil Aviation Express: +86-898-88689559 ZJS Express Co Ltd: +86-898-88267846; free call: +86-4006789000 Shentong Express: +86-898-88281837 China Railway Express: +86-898-88261261 TTKD Express: +86-898-88260486 Eitong Air Express: +86-898-88277220

 

Medical treatment and Health Care
For the sake of your safety, it is advised to bring some medicines with you on trip, for example, the medicines against stomach diseases and colds, and you should avoid by all means eating too much and drinking too much. Under general circumstances, there is a medical treatment room in a hotel, where you can get your colds or small scraped injuries treated in time. But for particular first aid issues, please promptly go to a regular hospital.

Security on Trip
You don't need worry too much about security issues when you travel in Sanya, but we still need to remind you of some precautions:
l        Take good care of your valuable articles with yourself;
l        Put security in the first place during your trip, and take such risky activities like making exploration into rainforest, drifting along a river, on-water sports and so on selectively and under the guidance of professionals;
l        For going out late in night, you had better have some companions with you, especially if you are a single woman;
l        Respect the living custom of local people and of various ethnic groups;
l        In the need of first aid or an ambulance when you are in a hotel, you may promptly contact the reception des for help.
l        In case of some accidents, you may call the police for help.

Tourists Rights and Interests
l        In consideration of tourists, Sanya city has continuously carried out a mix of administration systems in recent years so that your legal rights and interests shall be secured during your journey in Sanya.
l        The government requires that a tourist group should have specially invited supervisor on service quality. If you take part into a tourist group to Sanya, please elect a representative in the group to exercise the power of supervising the service quality of each segment of Sanya tourism.
l        If you enter for a tourist to Sanya, please note whether the operator has a travel agency license. Please sign a tourism contract with the travel agency to reach an agreement on the service contents and standards.
l        During your journey in Sanya, you have the right to be respected in human dignity as well as your ethnic; you have the right to choose the servers, the service methods, and tourism commodities on your own, and to accept or refuse any extra service in addition to the service agreed in the contract.
l        You have the right to require the tourism operator to provide the services which accord with person and property security. In order to prevent travel agencies from offering prices lower than cost for the purpose of contending for visitors but avoid loss by reducing their service standards or other means which will do harm to your legal rights and interests, we hope you to pay reasonable prices for enjoying high grade tourism services and have transparent consumption and a relaxing journey as well.

Complaint Consultation
The functional departments of Sanya municipal government have established a perfect tourism complaint accepting system, and they make great efforts to react promptly and accurately in acceptiong complaints and closing cases. If any need, please call the following numbers: