Sanya underwater carnival promotes sports tourism

A model sits underwater amid a school of fish in Sanya, South China's Hainan province. [photo/sanya.gov.cn]

A photographer takes a photo of a sea turtle underwater. [photo/sanya.gov.cn]

A photo shows the mysterious undersea scenery of Sanya. [photo/sanya.gov.cn]

The city of Sanya hosted an international underwater carnival on May 25 at Wuzhizhou Island tourism zone, with over 30 photographers and mermaid models from across China invited to record and display the province's mysterious undersea views.

As one of the carnival's main activities, the underwater photography competition not only saw the participation of an online review panel that made the event more professional and fair, but also the online participation of residents and tourists. It greatly promoted the high quality diving resources in the Chinese tropical city.

"We will keep developing the international underwater carnival as a major sports and travel cultural project, as well as make it an event that is professional, popular among people, healthy, and environment friendly," said Bao Yongzhou, head of the Sanya Sports Tourism Association.

In the future, Sanya will stick to its principle of prioritizing ecological protection during the development and utilization of the sea, as well as implement measures like prohibiting fishing and regularly cleaning marine debris to restore and protect marine resources, according to Chen Yandong, who is in charge of relevant affairs of Wuzhizhou Island tourism zone.

"Abundant island tourism resources are the core competitive characteristics to various aquatic sports events for Sanya," Chen explained.