Focus shifts to finding ways to make heritage pay

Many people associate Sanya with beautiful weather, stretches of golden beach and kilometres of blue water. The world also knows Sanya as the venue of international events such as the Miss World 2015 pageant. To augment all these attractions, Sanya's government is focusing on developing key cultural projects. 

The Sanya Water Ballet Performing Arts Center is one of them. The six-storey centre, located at Yingbin Road, boasts a construction area of around 6,000 square metres. The multifunctional rooms include a conference hall, an exhibition hall, an intangible project exhibition hall and an electronic reading room. There is also a children's activity centre, a rehearsal hall, an art information archive and a database centre. 

Over the past few years, the government in Sanya has been upgrading its cultural attractions so that they have greater appeal to tourists and residents, and the centre is in line for renovation.

Sanya also boasts two official intangible cultural heritage art forms - the Li people's firewood-gathering dance and Yazhou folk songs. Other heritage art activities include the Li people's traditional pottery making, the Sanyuan dance of the Miao people, and other traditional dances and folk music. In addition, it has a wealth of intricate weaving, dyeing, and embroidery. The 10th Cultural Heritage Day was celebrated with gusto in Shengli Square. 

The Haitang Bay Dreamland City, a large-scale cultural tourism complex, is the brainchild of the Sanya Haichang Tourism Industry Development. The project is part of an attempt by the Sanya government to merge tourism with entertainment, a push which has great influence on Sanya's tourism transition and development. 

Zhang Qi, a member of the provincial standing committee of Hainan and secretary of the Sanya municipal committee, has ordered the construction to be fast-tracked. Sanya's government is determined to build the city's reputation while upholding its cultural traditions.