Sorry for the hijack, but this thread must set a SB record. After a six year hibernation, the original poster was still around for a rebuttal (and replied to on the same day). DiverKim, if you're ever up for a dive in the Parksville/Nanoose area let me know!
Hainan's miserable diving scene
- Thread starter diverkim
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
framel
New
I just came back from my trip with China Dive Club - thanks to this post - and it was great. The guys are really nice and the dive spot was almost deserted. They made me forget a really bad trip to West Island where my hotel send me to for diving... Guo my instructor took some really nice fotos and he emailed them to me for free which I think is not common in a place where tourists get asked for their money EVERYWHERE.
The 2 tank dives cost 650 RMB and the rental for the equipment was 100 RMB. This included hotel pickup, lunch, snacks and water and a t-shirt
and the pics
I can really recommend these guys, if you come to Hainan and want to go diving, check out China Dive Club!
The 2 tank dives cost 650 RMB and the rental for the equipment was 100 RMB. This included hotel pickup, lunch, snacks and water and a t-shirt
and the pics I can really recommend these guys, if you come to Hainan and want to go diving, check out China Dive Club!
framel
New
oliverdeppert
New
Agreed framel, Chinadive club is good. They have good instructors and will take you to place where there are few other people. They do not to the cattle driving style diving, and they give you new gear and good equipment. I have been living in Sanya for 4 months now. I came here to be by the beach and study chinese. I ended up finding my self a job here at China dive because they were a comparable operation to any I have used in the west. I would never ever work for another company in Sanya. I also agree that the scenery is not great like place in the coral triangle or red sea or something. But if you are here or somewhere close by or plan to come for a visit. Its reasonable to squeeze in a few dives. And you can find unusual animals here. I have found many different types of nudibranchs, i found a robust ghost pipe fish, found wasp fish, and some I had no idea what they were. So it can be good, if you have a good operation to go through.
I just returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise that included a day-stop in Sanya. I'd read the reviews on the poor diving and so had not done further research on where/how/how much, but my husband was interested in a China dive, so we just took a shuttle to the beach and tried. Beautiful beach with a great boardwalk and lots of restaurants that must come alive at night. Apparently a lot of Russian tourists come here. At 4:00 PM, we were totally ignored in the first 2 dive operations we walked into, even though we were the only customers, so we kept walking. A sales guy with a flyer approached us with pictures of scuba diving and fishing... so we followed him. NOBODY in this dive operation in an international resort town spoke English, and we were Chinese-language total idiots. There was a sign... the same sign/prices in the other locations... that outlined dive adventure options and prices, in English among other languages. We opted for a reef dive from a boat, at $460 Yuan each, about $75. They, of course, took no credit cards. And no US dollars, unlike everywhere else in Indochina. So the man with the flyer finally figured out how to make it work, and accepted our dollars. We signed... something... and they didn't take a second glance at our dive certification cards. The "safety briefing" was in Chinese, with the man actually pointing to the Chinese words to help us better understand... and then he finally pantomined breathing through the mouth and not the nose, and thumb up, thumb down, and OK hand signals. They had personal mouthpieces for sale for 20 Yuan, and since the one on the display BC/tank (that was never referenced) was so incredibly nasty that I insisted on buying them... we had to beg to make him take dollars. We got into beat-up large-enough wetsuits and booties, got on a boat with some Chinese tourists, and took a quick ride 200 yards away to a dive platform. They put weight belts on us, and had each of us walk down a ladder/steps into the water, where a dive-guy floated us into a BC with tank. He tilted my head back and cinched on a mask for me, and handed me the regulator with my fresh mouthpiece on it. The BC had no depth guage nor octopus. The dive guy rolled me over and pushed me to the bottom, staying above and behind me, and then pushed me over the totally silted over reef with at least, oh, 5 different types of aquarium fish and he only bonked me into the coral 4-5 times... Visibility was about 20 feet, depth maybe as deep as 20 feet. After about 20 minutes he pushed me back to the dive platform. As experienced international divers, a ridiculous, underimpressive dive experience. As a family adventure to try diving on a summer vacation, might be fun if you speak Chinese and understand the instructions for a first, resort "course" dive experience. Since there were several dive platforms, I assume this experience would have been the same, with any of the Sanya boardwalk dive operations. The guidebook said that youth hostels have a guidebook that lists a man who is trying to upgrade dive options in the area; with time and language and transportation constraints, we did not seek him out. I agree with others who have posted... the worst diving on a reef in the world.
OP
I am glad to hear that there is a good dive center on Hainan. It needed it, as anywhere does. I think Hainan could be revived to a good dive spot (and I wish it were because there is no place for me to dive in China besides Taiwan) by regulating fishing practices and environmental coddling and stringent protection. There might be some unfished areas discovered somewhere in the vicinity (although I find this highly unlikely because fishers are good at finding and catching fish). Otherwise recovery will take a few years.
I might also add that I was told by the owner of the largest diving outfit in one of China's largest cities that it doesn't even send it customers to Hainan for obvious reasons.
I might also add that I was told by the owner of the largest diving outfit in one of China's largest cities that it doesn't even send it customers to Hainan for obvious reasons.
oliverdeppert
New
First, let me tell you about the diving operations and why they are the way they are. Chinese people dont dive, few even know you can learn through organizations like PADI or CMAS. So when they come here to Sanya for there 5 day trip or whatever, they dont even think about learning to dive, rather they would like to do one day dive like the PADI Discover Scuba Diving. Now when you have this many Chinese tourists coming to Sanya to try that. People saw opportunity in starting these make shift dive operations. Where they dont give you fins, they dont have good equipment, and they dont care what the dive site looks like or if there is even anything to see. There are many of these dive operations. All owned by different people or companies or hotels, depending on where they are. In Da Dong Hai beach, those dive operations will NEVER dive anywhere but the barge boat about 200 meters off the beach. Same goes for the operations in Sanya Bay and Yalong Bay. They make ton of money on it. Think about it. There customer base is not the avid western diver. Its the curios but totally oblivious chinese tourist. They may only do it once, but when you have that large of a customer base, it doest matter if they dont like it or dont come back. Now the other big issue with these make shift dive operations is that they have "guanxi" as its called in chinese or good relations with the local government who controls what people can and cant do. Now that means that they control these dive sites. And if you were on your own boat with your own dive equipment and went to the dive site, they would have the right to kick you out or make you pay. But the thing they dont like about a real dive operation is it arouses questions in their customers. They start to ask questions like, why dont we get fins, how come they are diving with out someone holding on to them. They dont like that.
Now that leads me to my next point which is that as a real dive operation in Sanya, they have to deal with these things constantly, which prevents them from progressing. And if a dive center wanted to just get on a boat and explore the coast and dive in places that are not controlled by these companies or hotels they end up getting into big trouble with the local police. Who dont allow you to just dive where you like. If they catch you, they try to take your equipment, take bribe or report you and the dive center has to deal with the repercussions. Its very annoying. So its a catch 22 of sorts.
So my final point is NEVER NEVER, let me say that again, NEVER!! go with one of those beach side dive operations. Not only are they terribly run, but they are extremely bad on the environment, those mouth pieces that you buy for 20 RMB go right into the ocean after you use it. And like I said before the amount of people that go diving with them is HUGE. Thats alot of mouth pieces. Not just that but they lay on top of what coral is left, they break it off give it to their customers and things like that. These dive sites are said to be the few actually protected reefs in Hainan. What they mean is commercial fishing is not allowed there. But everything else is ok. Also a little distressing to think about. The other thing is that they are not very safe. Granted you will not go deeper then 5 meters, but the air in the tanks is very bad and will leave you with a headache, and often those "dive masters" (who are generally CMAS level 2 divers) that push you under dont pay attention. I have seen them on the surface looking up at the clouds while they is pushing down a diver under the water. I was told that the record amount of divers one of these "dive masters" took in one day was was 34 divers. That seems crazy. So, let reiterate my point. NEVER go diving with these beach operations.
However, there are a few decent dive centers, who find ways to go places. At the moment a company called China Dive Resort used to be China Dive Club. They are currently going to two places for diving, Nuchewan (Cow Car Bay) there are of course no cars or cows there. Dont know why its called that. But there are few divers there. This place is about a 30 min drive from Da dong hai then about a 10 min boat ride to the bay. It suffers from a few issues, over fishing in the past. But not any more and there is lots of new coral poping up all over at about 5 to 10 meters and also sometimes has bad vis. Best is about 20 meters worst is less the 1 meter. There are some wonderful large bommies at about 8 meters in the very center of the bay. And to both the left and right side from 12 to 20 meters are huge bolders with some cool swim throughs. There is one of these dunk them in the water with no fins dive operations set up there. But it is very small and have only seen 4 or 5 people in the water at one time. So this place is willing to take customers no mater what even if it from a Dive center who brings their own equipment and do things properly. Also their compressor there is very new. bought with in the year. And the air is clean and leaves you feeling normal.
The other place that China Dive will take you diving is an Island called Fenzhezhou Island. It is about a 2 hour drive from sanya and a 10 min boat ride to the island. It is a little complicated diving there. More then it would be else where but quite normal for china! The reason its complicated is because it again is owned by a big company so you have to buy a tickets to get there and so forth. However, they like Nuchewan are a new place and want more people to go, so are willing to let dive centers come and bring their customers to do REAL diving. During the winter its very clear up to 25 meters on a good day. They have some nice shallow coral. and some small wrecks. And a few big schools of fish, which you dont really see anywhere else in Hainan anymore. Last week I saw a big school of pickhandle Barracuda. Pretty cool. they were medium size i would guess fairly young, they are in the same spot, and there is no fishing allowed around the island. Have high hopes for the right development of the island and hope it does not totally change into a dadonghai or yalong bay. However, money rules here. The bad thing about the island is they have a whale shark in captivity that people can play lots of money to swim with, as well as dolphins and seals.
As for the Diving in Sanya. Dadong Hai has no reef left that isnt dead, broken or covered in silt. The Vis there is almost always terrible. So I would avoid diving there. However, one thing I like about it is that I have found many types of Nudibranchs there. Not so many fish. Yalong bay, has avrage vis. On a good day can be 20-25 meters. But the hotels there have a good hold on the dive sites. Which are small very shallow reefs. Some portions of it are in good shape. healthy looking and fairly untouched by fishing because the hotels protect it from that to do their diving. BUt if you go with the operations at yalong bay. They will do the same make shift diving that is very bad. If you really want to go there, ask the dive center to take you. They might be able to work something out. Sanya bay and the islands around it I would avoid completely from diving. Not good at all. Ho Hai Bay and Nuche bay (which are close to each other) are you best options, with lots of Nudis, better vis more wildlife. and the possibility for a good dive!
Thats my opinion. I have lived and dived here for a year now. And love the dive center but hate how difficult the government and businesses make the diving for the people who want to do it properly. Hope this helps people who are interested.
Now that leads me to my next point which is that as a real dive operation in Sanya, they have to deal with these things constantly, which prevents them from progressing. And if a dive center wanted to just get on a boat and explore the coast and dive in places that are not controlled by these companies or hotels they end up getting into big trouble with the local police. Who dont allow you to just dive where you like. If they catch you, they try to take your equipment, take bribe or report you and the dive center has to deal with the repercussions. Its very annoying. So its a catch 22 of sorts.
So my final point is NEVER NEVER, let me say that again, NEVER!! go with one of those beach side dive operations. Not only are they terribly run, but they are extremely bad on the environment, those mouth pieces that you buy for 20 RMB go right into the ocean after you use it. And like I said before the amount of people that go diving with them is HUGE. Thats alot of mouth pieces. Not just that but they lay on top of what coral is left, they break it off give it to their customers and things like that. These dive sites are said to be the few actually protected reefs in Hainan. What they mean is commercial fishing is not allowed there. But everything else is ok. Also a little distressing to think about. The other thing is that they are not very safe. Granted you will not go deeper then 5 meters, but the air in the tanks is very bad and will leave you with a headache, and often those "dive masters" (who are generally CMAS level 2 divers) that push you under dont pay attention. I have seen them on the surface looking up at the clouds while they is pushing down a diver under the water. I was told that the record amount of divers one of these "dive masters" took in one day was was 34 divers. That seems crazy. So, let reiterate my point. NEVER go diving with these beach operations.
However, there are a few decent dive centers, who find ways to go places. At the moment a company called China Dive Resort used to be China Dive Club. They are currently going to two places for diving, Nuchewan (Cow Car Bay) there are of course no cars or cows there. Dont know why its called that. But there are few divers there. This place is about a 30 min drive from Da dong hai then about a 10 min boat ride to the bay. It suffers from a few issues, over fishing in the past. But not any more and there is lots of new coral poping up all over at about 5 to 10 meters and also sometimes has bad vis. Best is about 20 meters worst is less the 1 meter. There are some wonderful large bommies at about 8 meters in the very center of the bay. And to both the left and right side from 12 to 20 meters are huge bolders with some cool swim throughs. There is one of these dunk them in the water with no fins dive operations set up there. But it is very small and have only seen 4 or 5 people in the water at one time. So this place is willing to take customers no mater what even if it from a Dive center who brings their own equipment and do things properly. Also their compressor there is very new. bought with in the year. And the air is clean and leaves you feeling normal.
The other place that China Dive will take you diving is an Island called Fenzhezhou Island. It is about a 2 hour drive from sanya and a 10 min boat ride to the island. It is a little complicated diving there. More then it would be else where but quite normal for china! The reason its complicated is because it again is owned by a big company so you have to buy a tickets to get there and so forth. However, they like Nuchewan are a new place and want more people to go, so are willing to let dive centers come and bring their customers to do REAL diving. During the winter its very clear up to 25 meters on a good day. They have some nice shallow coral. and some small wrecks. And a few big schools of fish, which you dont really see anywhere else in Hainan anymore. Last week I saw a big school of pickhandle Barracuda. Pretty cool. they were medium size i would guess fairly young, they are in the same spot, and there is no fishing allowed around the island. Have high hopes for the right development of the island and hope it does not totally change into a dadonghai or yalong bay. However, money rules here. The bad thing about the island is they have a whale shark in captivity that people can play lots of money to swim with, as well as dolphins and seals.
As for the Diving in Sanya. Dadong Hai has no reef left that isnt dead, broken or covered in silt. The Vis there is almost always terrible. So I would avoid diving there. However, one thing I like about it is that I have found many types of Nudibranchs there. Not so many fish. Yalong bay, has avrage vis. On a good day can be 20-25 meters. But the hotels there have a good hold on the dive sites. Which are small very shallow reefs. Some portions of it are in good shape. healthy looking and fairly untouched by fishing because the hotels protect it from that to do their diving. BUt if you go with the operations at yalong bay. They will do the same make shift diving that is very bad. If you really want to go there, ask the dive center to take you. They might be able to work something out. Sanya bay and the islands around it I would avoid completely from diving. Not good at all. Ho Hai Bay and Nuche bay (which are close to each other) are you best options, with lots of Nudis, better vis more wildlife. and the possibility for a good dive!
Thats my opinion. I have lived and dived here for a year now. And love the dive center but hate how difficult the government and businesses make the diving for the people who want to do it properly. Hope this helps people who are interested.
Last edited:
oliverdeppert
New
Also Check out China Dive on Facebook! Just look for China Dive. Have some pics and updates on diving in China
i tried one dive off shenzhen Dapeng Bay (it was supposed to be two dives, but we cancelled after one as it was awful. 4 meter max depth, less than 1 meter viz, and saw one or two small fish and a couple small corals, when we werent trying to find each other. Are there any other places that have diving in china? Like HaiLing Island or elsewhere in Taishan or YangJiang. We have a group in china and were thinking of buying a compressor and trying various dives along the coast to try and find something decent. Would we even be allowed to do this? Would we be limited to parks so the police would not bother us?
Similar threads
