Sanya, located on the southernmost tip of China's Hainan Island, is a tropical resort city. We went there at the end of January 2026 for 3 full days, joining my siblings and families, as a pre Lunar New Year trip. We primarily visited 3 major attractions there - West Island, Sanya Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone, and Luhuitou (aka Deer Looking back) Park. I also watched bird when chances arose.
We stayed at the well-known, and maybe also infamous, Big Tree Residence Hotel, which by itself, is a tourist attraction. The hotel complex has 9 buildings, all in the shape of giant trees, standing by the Linchun River. They look unique and beautiful, especially when we looked at them from a short distance way from a bridge over the river. Close up look was not shabby either. That's the end of the good things we can say about it.
The hotel complex is one of the "rotten tail" projects in China, while not officially abandoned in the traditional sense, it faces low occupancy, and is poorly managed. The building A we stayed had a foul smell due to drainage related issue at the basement parking lot, among other issues - balcony was not completed for one sibling's room, crumbled walls/ceilings in some sections - closed to guests.
View of the Big Tree Hotel from Linchun River Bridge
A close up look
A close up of a building
West Island of Sanya
It is small island offshore from the main island, about 15 minute away by ferry. The island's east side beach is highly commercialized with numerous restaurants, shops. There are many man made decorations along the beach, which make stroll along the beach more interesting. We basically walked the full east side beach. We were stopped at Turtle beach due to lack of trail going further, that's also natural beauty start to shine.
colorful hat shaped umbrella
After the turtle beach - where there were no wild turtles, but some in a sanctuary, we had to take a shuttle to get to the southern tip through an overpass by the cliff. There is tiny hilly islet, at the southern end of west island, connected to the West island through a pedestrian bridge. There is a golden ox on hill top, and a paifang (i.e. ceremonial archway). Looking around, rock shoreline, trees and crystal clear water feasted the eyes! Best natural beauty of West Island is here.
We had lunch at a beach side restaurant with organic shaped open windows, and visited the Library at sea.
windows with views
Library at Sea
Sanya Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone
This zone has beautiful beach, Nanshan Temple and the 108 meter high 3 face statue of Guanyin in the sea. The beach is rocky near the temple, and sandy near the giant statue. The temple was constructed in 1995, the Statue was a recent construction as well, built in 2005.
Chinese tourists were mostly congregated at the the Giant Statue, there was few people away from it. Fewer people at beach, or in the mountain. So in the crowded tourist attraction, there are small oases here and there to enjoy peace and nature.
hill of longevity
The right hand of Guanyin
Luhuitou (Deer Looking back)
Luhuitou is a hilly peninsula, facing the sea on three sides, the other side facing Sanya downtown business district - where high rises and nature inspired skyscrapers reside. The hill top is 181 meters tall. After two day extensive hiking, the group decided to take it easy, rented a chauffeured VIP motor cart, which drove us to the top of the hill to enjoy the scenery, and picked us up again when we decided not walk downhill anymore. It also had other perks - free photo shot at the Luhuitou Sculpture, tea/coffee and local snack by the sculpture. It was the first time for us to enjoy such luxury sightseeing.
Bird Watching
Despite going with the group, I managed to spot and to take pictures of birds. The birds were mostly tropical birds which I saw before. I did spot new specie bird to me: I heard a unique bird chirp which I never heard before, I looked at the direction the chirp coming from, and saw nothing. I patiently looked from different angles, and finally my eyes adjust to the tree shads and saw this bird with a large crest, and I walked around and get to its backside - there were color strips on it back - it was a common hoopoe!
common hoopoe @ Nanshan
A family of Geese @ Nathan
magpie robin - same as that in Singapore
Egret at Lichun River
olive back sunbird - Luhuitou
Overall Sanya is a great place to visit especially in winter dry season - not hot during the day, cool at night. Beautiful scenery, variety of water activities (snorkling, scub diving, kayaking, swimming ...) ...
Not the true outdoor, but more park like - comparable to Singapore.
Notes -
1. Other notable places at Sanya we visited - Tianya Haijiao - large boulders by the beach, another beaches are Da Dong Hai, Xiao Dong Hai. All have crystal clear water - good for wading in the sea, and watching the sea.
large crowd at the Tian Ya boulder - no difference from other boulder but have the carved words
Haijiao boulder - photo edited to remove people
2. An notable food place is Huo Che Tou Seafood Market- where we bought live seafood to have a restaurant to cook for us
The Vatican was high on my list of places to visit during our November 2025 Roman Holidays
I associate two places with the Vatican - Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museum and St. Peter Basilica - because of news reports and movies about them.
Sistine Chapelis the pope's official residence in Vatican City. One of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. I was exposed to its conclave function through the news report on elections of Benedict XVI, Francis and Leo XIV.
We visited the Vatican Museum in the late afternoon (4:30pm) of our first day at Rome.
We got to the Vatican Museum under a setting Sun. We stood outside the wall of the museum which looks massive and ancient, in cold breeze.
Wall of the Vatican Museum
a path outside Vatican museum
We entered the museum via a spiral stairs, artifacts/souvenirs lined against the stairwell wall, and then we went to the courtyard to look around - evening glow in the sky, and the lights in the courtyard. We lingered for a few minutes and returned inside to see the exhibits.
After the courtyard, we entered Gregorian Egyptian Museum with room after room of Egyptian antiquities including sculptures, reliefs & sarcophagi (carvings and stone coffins). Not really know anything about roman catholic religion or church, I just followed tourist flow to look at paintings, sculptures, ceramics, ...and chapels. It was sensorily overwhelming.
Egyptian Sculpture
sarcophagi - coffin
Relief
I did recognize some more famous pieces or figures, such as the Apollo Belvedere - the Greek and roman god, and various depiction of Christ on a cross.
Despite reading signages of some sculptures, paintings, carvings, I don't remember anything when I looked at the photos I took at the museums.
The gallery of maps stood out for me among all the religion related museums and galleries. I lingered at the Roma maps - comparing the historical changes of Rome between ancient time to modern time.
Gallery of Maps Ceiling: Characterized by dense, three-dimensional gold and white stucco figures
At the end of the tour of the museum we came at a chapel where it was quiet with many securities present, it was Sistine Chapel. This is a famous chapel for two reasons - best known for Michelangelo's 16th-century painted ceiling, as well as the conclave for election of new pope.
The creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
There are 26 galleries, or rooms, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the last room visited within the Museum, as grand finale. I was glad the visit was over after 3 hours, and breathed fresh air outside the museum.
We visited St. Peter Basilica in the late afternoon of our last day at Rome, we got there just in time (5:25pm)before the entrance to the church is closed (5:30pm) to the tourists.
St. Peter Basilica is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions. The pope presides at a number of liturgies throughout the year both within the basilica or the adjoining St. Peter's Square; these liturgies draw audiences numbering from 15,000 to over 80,000 people. That's what I see from time to time on TV - mainly liturgies at St Peter's square.
The church at dusk
a procession of prayers who marched to St. Peter Basilica
We were amazed by the church ceiling heights plus large scale paintings/sculptures - It is massive because we can only compare them to a person's height.
We entered through the side entrance. The ceiling there is about as high as that of the nave. The nave of St. Peter's Basilica is approximately 46.2 meters (152 ft) high. This massive barrel-vaulted ceiling, adorned with gilded coffers. In order to show the height I had to use portrait mode to take the pictures. The central dome is much taller, at 118meter.
The nave*
We walked around, looked up and down, entered side halls. We saw sculptures/paintings here in other churches as well, just at smaller scale, but the content is essentially the same.
We observed an evening mass, and left the church in about 1 hour.
Exit the Church, the St Peter's Square was in front of us, looking back up, the 13 statues stands on top of the roof. These statues, which are roughly 19 feet high, represent Christ the Redeemer at the center, flanked by St. John the Baptist and eleven apostles.
The visit of St. Peter's Basilica is more a tour of architectures than a religious or cultural tour to me.
St. Peter's Square
St Peter's Basilica
13 statues stands on top of the roof
Notes
1) The nave is the central, main body of a church where the congregation sits or stands for services, typically stretching from the entrance to the transepts or chancel.
2) Catholics were discriminated in USA, but Roman Catholic Church is the most influential church in the world. This visit to Vatican led to me looking at factions of Christianity again (Google Search):
Christianity has major branches like Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, with Protestantism further dividing into numerous denominations like Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Pentecostals, all sharing core beliefs but differing in governance, practices, and interpretation of scripture. These groups emerged from historical splits, such as the East-West Schism (Orthodox vs. Catholic) and the Reformation (Protestantism from Catholicism).
3) Why is Catholicism is discriminated in USA - Discrimination against Catholics in the U.S. stems from deep-seated historical Protestant nativism, which viewed Catholicism as a foreign, anti-democratic threat loyal to the Pope rather than the state.
4) Books I read about Roman Catholic - A pilgrimage to Eternity, Michelangelo - God's Architect. A Pilgrimage to Eternity addressed the dark sides of Christian churches:
a) "wars of religion" where Christians killed other Christians over theological nuances, highlighting the irony of a faith based on peace fueling centuries of conflict.
-The European Wars of Religion (16th and 17th Centuries):"intra-Christian wars" triggered by the Protestant Reformation. killed more people than World War I
-French Wars of Religion & Huguenot Persecution: Discussed in the context of sectarian violence.
-The Protestant Reformation: Specifically, the anti-Semitism of Martin Luther and the iron-fisted rule of John Calvin in Geneva.
- The Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834) was a tribunal established by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms. It targeted conversos (Jewish converts), Moriscos (Muslim converts), and later Protestants, using secret trials, torture, and executions to enforce religious conformity and punish heresy.
b) the paradox of "Holy War," where the cross was used as a banner for conquest and the massacre of non-believers -
- The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. In all, eight major Crusade expeditions—varying in size, strength and degree of success—occurred between 1096 and 1291. The costly, violent and often ruthless conflicts enhanced the status of European Christians, making them major players in the fight for land in the Middle East.
