A growing number of overseas tourists are traveling to Sanya, a coastal city on the southern tip of Hainan Island, south China, for winter vacation.

Statistics provided by Fenghuang (Phoenix) International Airport in Sanya show that there were 26 in-bound flights at the airport between Dec.23-25, with over 3,000 tickets being sold. They include 18 flights from Hong Kong, eight from the Republic of Korea (ROK) and two from Russia.

A total of 210 Russian tourists aboard a chartered flight bade farewell to ice-cold Moscow and touched down in Sanya at around 2 PM on Christmas, beginning their winter vacation in this southern Chinese tropical city.

Chartered flights connecting Sanya and Russian cities in the forthcoming month, ending Jan. 26, will amount to 12, according to information provided by the airport.

Russians have made 20,000 journeys to Sanya, which abounds in sunshine, beautiful sand beached and seawater, this year

Most ROK tourists travel to Sanya to play golf.

Airport information said another chartered plane destined for Sanya from Japan will be arriving in town next week.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2005)