Phoenix Island

Artificial island in Sanya Bay famous for its five surreal high-rise towers

Phoenix Island is an artificial island in Sanya Bay, joined to the mainland by a short bridge, dominated by five elliptical high-rise towers that look like vertical eggs or, depending on your mood, hovering UFOs. It was conceived during China's mid-2000s building boom as a luxury resort and cruise terminal complex — apartments here briefly sold at some of the highest prices ever recorded in China — and the architecture is unmistakably of that era: ambitious, expensive, and a bit of a folly.

Whether or not you stay on the island, it is worth seeing at night. The exterior of all five towers is covered in LED panels that play synchronised colour animations after dark, visible from anywhere along Sanya Bay. The Phoenix Island International Cruise Terminal handles regular sailings to Vietnam and other regional destinations. The best vantage points are the Sanya Bay promenade across the water, or the bridge to the island itself.

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Phoenix Island was dubbed "the Oriental Dubai" when construction began in the mid-2000s, and like many Chinese mega-developments of that era it became a cautionary tale — apartments sold for record prices then crashed, the cruise terminal struggled to attract liners, and the five UFO-shaped towers have spent much of their lives partly empty. They remain the most recognisable silhouette on Sanya Bay, especially after dark when LED skin covering the buildings lights up in shifting colours.

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