The city is renowned for its tropical climate and has emerged as a popular tourist destination, also serving as the training site of the Chinese national beach volleyball team.

Sanya is also the location of Yulin Naval Base, a major military facility on the South China Sea which is home to the People's Liberation Army Navy ballistic nuclear missile fleet.

Known in ancient times as Yazhou, postal romanization: Aichow (崖州), literally "cliff state or prefecture", Sanya's history dates to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE).

As a result, the city served as a place of exile for officials who found themselves out of favor with the country's rulers.

During the Tang dynasty, a Buddhist monk accidentally landed here, using the site as a staging post on his missionary journey to Japan.

In 1959 and 1961, these areas were separated to establish Baoting and Lingshui while Yaxian County remained in its current prefecture.

Located at 18° 15' N latitude, Sanya is–after Sansha (also administered by Hainan Province)–the second-southernmost prefecture-level city nationally.

[6] The area has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen Aw),[7] featuring hot weather all year around.

[1] Before 30 July 2014, there was direct jurisdiction over four county-level districts and two township-level subdistricts (乡级管理区; xiāngjí guǎnlǐqū), six towns (镇; zhèn) and four state-run farms in Sanya City.

The Hainan Western Ring High-Speed Railway, running along the west coast of the province also links Sanya to Haikou.

There are also numerous clinics for doing annual health-checks, which are usually brands of national chains in China, such as Ciming Healthcheck.

[citation needed] Sanya Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital (三亚市中医院) is located on Fenghuang Road.

[20] It is a grade-A tertiary hospital offering medical care, education, research, healthcare services and International Chinese Medicine exchange and cooperation.

[citation needed] The Sanya area of Hainan offers a free trade port offering opportunities for overseas service providers to enter the local market, and it is actively developing its commercial health services industry to promote medical tourism.

A pilot project was approved by the People's Republic of China State Council in 2013 called the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, also known by 2024 as Boao Hope City,[21] as the only medical tourism special zone in China.

The only public university located in Sanya, Qiongzhou is actively pursuing more foreign enrollments, hoping to attract Chinese tourism and language students to the city.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.