Sanya is a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of hainan province, also known as lucheng, located in the southernmost part of hainan island. It is adjacent to lingshui county to the east, ledong county to the west, baoting county to the north and nanhai county to the south.

Sanya is an international tourist city with the characteristics of tropical coastal scenery, also known as "Oriental Hawaii". On June 14, 2016, the Chinese Academy of Sciences released the report on livable cities in China, and the livable index of sanya ranked the third among the 40 cities in China. In September 2016, sanya was selected as one of the "top 100 prefecture-level cities in China for people's livelihood development". In February 2017, sanya was selected as one of the third batch of national low-carbon city pilots. Sanya is also listed in the top 200 cities with Chinese characteristics and the top 200 cities with world characteristics.

In January 2019, sanya was identified as an advantageous area for agricultural products with Chinese characteristics.