GLOBALink | Sports Geography: The bond between marine sports and the ocean in China's coastal city of Sanya

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2024-06-08 21:04:22

An aerial drone photo taken on Feb. 25, 2021 shows a view of Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

Sanya boasts a coastline that offers stunning tropical coastal scenery, making it an ideal destination for beach holidays. In recent years, Sanya has been promoting tropical coastal leisure and sports tourism. Activities such as surfing, diving, sailing, and paddle boarding have flourished, attracting water sports enthusiasts from both near and far.

One of the first local villagers to embrace surfing was Yang Xingfu. Coming from a family of fishermen, Yang is now a surfing instructor in Houhai Village of Sanya. He first took up surfing in 2008 and immediately fell in love with this challenging sport. With his natural athleticism and exceptional water skills inherited from his fishing background, he quickly mastered surfing.

In 2015, after earning his International Surfing Association coaching certificate, Yang Xingfu began teaching surfing to students in Houhai Village. Thanks to his surfing skills, tourists from other places now flock to Houhai Village to learn from him.

In recent years, with the influx of a large number of tourists, Houhai Village, a small fishing village with a population of just over 3,000, has become a popular surfing destination where visitors eagerly seek to experience the waves.

Yang Xingfu helps a villager dock a fishingboat at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Chen)

Yang Xingfu prepares before surfing at a surfing club at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Chen)

Yang Xingfu waxes his surfboard before surfing on a beach at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Hu Xingyu)

This file photo taken on Feb. 27, 2021 shows Yang Xingfu teaching surfing techniques to a student on a beach at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

This file photo taken on Feb. 27, 2021 shows Yang Xingfu surfing in the waters of Queen's Bay in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

Yang Xingfu surfs in the waters of Queen's Bay in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Chen)

Yang Xingfu walks on a beach with his daughter at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

This file photo taken on Dec. 25, 2020 shows tourists learning surfing moves on a beach in Houhai Village of Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

Tourists surf in the waters of Queen's Bay in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

A tourist carrying her surfboard walks through an alley at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Chen)

This file photo taken on May 20, 2023 shows tourists dining at a night market by the seaside at Houhai Village of Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Hu Xingyu)

Surfboards are seen outside a surfing club at Houhai Village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on May 21, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Chen)

Wang Fengguo, 42, has been working at Wuzhizhou Island Tourism Resort since 2006. Initially, he worked as a diving instructor. In 2011, Wuzhizhou Island launched China's first tropical marine ranching project, and Wang joined the team, dedicating himself to marine environmental protection for 13 years.

Wang's team is responsible for maintaining the marine ranch, transplanting corals, monitoring the marine environment and cleaning up coral predators. To restore the ecological environment of nearby sea area, Wuzhizhou Island began a large-scale coral restoration project in 2016. As of now, Wang Fengguo has led his team to plant more than 51,000 coral fragments, which covers an area of over 53,000 square meters.

"I hope that in the near future, when people dive into the sea, they will immediately see beautiful corals and schools of fish," said Wang Fengguo.