My annual family holiday took place from 30 June to 6 July 2019. Id like to share our trip with you here.

Day1: Flight Zhengzhou - Sanya. Free time in Yalong Bay.

Sanya has always been my sons dream city. Although we have been there several times, it is still his favourite place to go on holiday.
Sanya is located on Hainan Island, which is full of tropical scenery and beautiful beaches that are very different from where we live. Sanya has several beaches, but of all the beaches, Yalong Bay has the cleanest water and the softest sand.
We took the flight from Zhengzhou to Sanya in the morning and had a free afternoon. There werent so many tourists in Yalong Bay. Children were running around on the beach, building sandcastles, digging for shells, swimming in the pool. Joy and laughter all around!

Day2: Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park

With the light wind and little rain, we visited Yalong Bay Tropical Paradise Forest Park. As the forest cover in the park is quite high, it has been nicknamed the natural forest oxygen bar.
Suggested sightseeing route in the park: Take a sightseeing bus at the west gate and get off at Ochid Valley, after visiting the Orchid Valley, take a bus to Guojianglong, walk through Guojianglong Rope Bridge, then take a bus at Haitang Station and get off at Redaitiantang Station, visit Giant Buddha Stone, Dragon Carving Square and Canghai Tower.

Day3：Haitang Bay.

In the morning we went to Haitang Bay. Its about 40km from Yalong Bay. Haitang Bay is one of the best beaches in Sanya and is becoming more and more popular, one of the reasons being the newly opened Aquaventure Waterpark. We visited the waterpark in the afternoon. Its a very interesting water amusement park. There are a lot of exciting rides which are very suitable for children and families.
The Lost Chambers Aquarium is inside the Atlantis Hotel. It is themed around the Lost City of Atlantis. We walked through the tunnels and encountered the amazing and colourful underwater life. There are over 86,000 marine animals in 28 different species where we can see sharks, stingrays, arapaima, lobsters and the tiniest seahorses etc.

Day4：Flight Sanya-Shanghai. Free time inthe afternoon.

We left for Shanghai in the morning to meet a friend. Shanghai is a very modern city with spectacular skylines. The afternoon is free.

Day5: Shanghai Natural History Museum

Today we visited the Shanghai Natural History Museum. It is located in the Jingan Sculpture Park.
There are more than 150,000 plant specimens, over 4,000 mammal specimens, almost 33,000 insect specimens, with the number of fish, bird and amphibian specimens all exceeding 10,000. We spent the whole day inside, which is not enough. The childrens favourite models are all kinds of dinosaurs, some of which can even roar and move their heads and tails, scary but interesting.

Day6：Chenshan Botanical Garden

Today we travelled out of the city to visit the Chenshan Botanical Garden. This new 207 hectare botanical garden was opened in 2010 as part of the Shanghai Expo. We saw thousands of lotus flowers in the pond and the large leaves can be used as umbrellas. We also took a small boat to explore the lake, surprisingly a mother swan and seven baby swans followed our boat in the hope of getting some food. The garden is both a green resource for the city and a new centre for plant science, the children and we learned a lot about plants here.

Day7：High speed train Shanghai-Zhengzhou.

On the last day we took train from Shanghai to Zhengzhou.

By Grace Gao - Charmission Travel