Sanya , China

I wonder if anyone could help ..... two things .... first confusion over whether a visa is needed for Sanya ? the HAL website states that if participating in an excursion by HAL, a visa is not required. On Sanya tourism website it mentions different types of visas such as a 72 hour one , UK passport holder, tourist visa etc ... in these cases it looks like we wouldn't need a visa at all as we are British passport holders and our stay in Sanya is for around 8 hours only. So .. 2 questions ... has anyone done the HAL Far East Discovery cruise in November last year (2016) and can confirm if a visa is required for Sanya ? .... and .... what excursions for Sanya were available as I'm having trouble finding any for this port !

Help would be much appreciated .......

Any answers to the above

i was there on a HAL cruise a few years back and we did not need a visa as i recall...

the ship had a shuttle service into the main part of town but unfortunately HAL gave zero info as to what might be near the shuttle drop off area which turned out to be a somewhat run down mall of sorts...very few people figured out that about a ten min walk away was the main beach resort area which was very pleasant...very heavy russian influence as apparently lots of russian cheapie package tourists visit there frequently