Wanning is the surfing capital of China — a claim that would have seemed absurd twenty years ago but is now essentially accurate. Riyue Bay (Sun and Moon Bay) on the city's coast hosts the China Surf Open and is studded with surf clubs offering boards, lessons, and the kind of beach-shack atmosphere that Sanya spent years trying and failing to manufacture. The waves are modest by international standards but consistent, the water warm, and the crowd a mix of committed Chinese surfers and curious beginners.
The Xinglong area within Wanning's jurisdiction is a different proposition: a pocket of Southeast Asian culture transplanted to Hainan in the 1950s when ethnic Chinese were expelled from Indonesia and other countries and resettled here by the Chinese government. The result is a town that grows its own coffee, runs the Xinglong Tropical Botanical Garden, and retains a faint Indonesian flavour in its cooking and architecture. The Xinglong Overseas Chinese Museum tells the full story of how this community came to exist.
Inland, Dongshan Ridge is a sacred Buddhist mountain with temples dating to the Song Dynasty, reachable by footpath or ropeway. Shihua Cave in the hills to the north provides limestone drama when the heat drives you off the beach. The combination of coastal surf culture, mid-century overseas Chinese history, and highland Buddhist heritage makes Wanning one of the more genuinely varied stops on the island — and one of the least visited by foreign tourists, which for many people is recommendation enough.