Before you read on
- When you race
- 5–6 December 2026
- How many nights to book
- 3 nights
- Who this race suits
- A warm, cheap race by a beach, in China's dry season.
- Nearest airport to the venue
- Sanya Phoenix International (SYX), About 40 min by taxi across the city
- Cost for the weekend
- CNY 1770 (USD 241) per person, Flights and race entry.
On this page
Should you race here?
A warm, cheap race a few hundred metres from a tropical beach, in the dry season.
Reasons to
- 24.6°C (76°F) and 27mm of rain across the month, while most of the calendar races in the cold.
- The venue is a short walk from the sea, which no other race on the calendar manages.
- Downtown rooms from about USD 53 and an ordinary meal for CNY 17.50.
- Hainan runs its own visa-free entry, separate from the rest of China, so the trip may be simpler than you assume.
Reasons not to
- 75% humidity, which will cost you minutes if you have arrived from a northern winter.
- Haitang Bay is a resort strip with nothing ordinary in it, and the real city is 35 minutes away.
- December is the top of the Hainan season, so flights and resort rooms are at their yearly peak.
Conditions on the day
24/7 FITNESS HYROX Sanya runs December 5th, 2026 to December 6th, 2026 at Sanya Poly International Expo Center. Here is what that specific window is like on the ground.
The catch
Warm and humid, in the dry season
25°C (76°F) by day, 19°C (66°F) at night
Sanya in early December
- The December average reaches 24.6°C (76°F) by day and falls to 19.1°C (66°F) at night.
- December is the dry end of the year here: 27mm across three days, against 200mm in September.
- Humidity holds at 75%, so the warmth is heavier than the number suggests.
- Daylight runs 07:00 to 18:05, which is eleven hours and barely moves all year.
- Daylight
- Dark
- Bar height is temperature
What racing here is like
Your race is here
Sanya Poly International Expo Center
December 5th, 2026
24/7 FITNESS HYROX Sanya
- Everything below describes this building first, and the other for comparison
The venue at a glance
- Address
- No. 33 Jianglin Road, Haitang District, Sanya, Hainan
- Parking
- On site at the expo centre, CNY 15 a day.
- From the nearest hotel
- 5 to 15 min from Resorts in Haitang Bay
- Altitude
- 7m above sea level, low enough to make no difference to your race.
- Bag drop
- Hyrox has not published the bag drop arrangement for Sanya.
- Supporters
- Hyrox has not published spectator ticketing for Sanya.
Sanya has moved building, moved season, and grown from a single day into the best part of a week. Where you race, and when, changes the day more than most people expect.
Sanya Poly International Expo Center, your race is in this building
A modern exhibition centre in Haitang Bay, the resort strip at the north-east end of the city, a few hundred metres from the sea.
Known for. The Hainan expo circuit that followed the island's duty-free boom, and the conference business that came with it.
The building. Built as part of the Haitang Bay development, which turned a stretch of coast into a duty-free and resort district inside fifteen years.
Race day and start times
The thing that shapes your travel is not the race date. It is when you find out what time you are racing on it.
Hyrox links individual start times on the event page about three days before the race. A provisional schedule goes up earlier.
What to bring
At the expo centre, and only on the day you compete. Registration opens 90 minutes before the first wave of your division.
You do not bring a chip. You collect the ankle strap at check-in, wear it for the race, and hand it back after the line.
What your wristband does not cover
You are given a wristband at check-in. Hyrox has not published what the Sanya one admits you to, and check-in is open only on the day you race, so do not assume it covers a second day.
Getting there on the morning
You can walk it from Haitang Bay. From downtown it is a 35-minute taxi, so order it the night before.
What you need to book
Before you book
Book flights and the last night around the provisional schedule, not around a wave you have not been given.
If Hyrox cancels or postpones the event, its terms do not cover your flights or your room. Check the cancellation deadline on both before you pay for either.
Flying into the city
Haikou, at the north end of Hainan, is three hours away by high-speed rail if the fares are better.
Search flights to SanyaBy train
Check train times and faresSomewhere to stay
The closest beds go first, and those are the ones that matter on race morning.
Compare hotels near the venueSomething to do with the rest of the weekend
Most people fly in for one race and see nothing. The day before is dead time if you do not plan it.
Tours and tickets in SanyaSomewhere to put your bag
Flying out the same evening? This is the difference between a good afternoon and hauling a kit bag around a city.
Left luggage in SanyaYour entry
Sold by Hyrox, one ticket per division per day. We earn nothing from this link and include it because you need it.
Official Hyrox entriesEstimate weekend cost
| Item | Local currency | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Three nights Nights near the venue | CNY 1170 | $159 |
| Travel, airport and around the city | CNY 300 | $41 |
| Eating, three days | CNY 300 | $41 |
| One athlete plus one supporter | CNY 1770 | $241 |
Getting to Sanya
Phoenix International is about 40 minutes from Haitang Bay by taxi, across the length of the city.
Taxi from Phoenix International
Forty minutes across the length of the city to Haitang Bay. Cheap by any international standard, and simpler than the bus with luggage.
Buses 33 and 35
They run from Sanya station out to Jianglin Road Park, five hundred metres from the hall, for two yuan. Slow and almost free.
Entry requirements
Quick tip
Set up a Chinese payment app before you fly. Cash is awkward here and cards are worse.
Getting to the venue
Haitang Bay has the venue and the resorts and nothing else. Dadonghai and downtown are 35 minutes away and cost a third as much.
Sanya is long and thin along its coast, and Haitang Bay is at the far north-east end of it. Buses 33 and 35 run out from Sanya station to Jianglin Road Park, five hundred metres from the hall, and taxis are cheap enough that most people will take one.
Where to stay
Haitang Bay is a resort strip with the expo centre in the middle of it. Staying there is expensive and effortless; staying downtown is cheap and 35 minutes away.
Open in Google Maps · Get directions
1. Resorts in Haitang Bay
Large international resorts on the beach, at high season prices. Walkable to the hall and to the Hyrox Fest.
2. Hotels in Dadonghai
Mid-priced hotels on a city beach, with ordinary restaurants and shops. The sensible compromise.
3. Hotels in downtown Sanya
Four-star rooms from about USD 53, the First Market, and the real city. A third of the Haitang Bay price.
December is the start of the Hainan high season, when the rest of China comes south for the winter. Book early, especially in Haitang Bay.
Neighbourhoods worth the commute
Sanya runs 30km along its coast in a line of bays. The venue is at the far end of it, so everything is measured by road.
| Area | To the venue | Why | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haitang Bay | 5 to 15 min on foot | The resort and duty-free strip the venue was built for. Expensive, new, and with the sea at the end of the road. | |
| Yalong Bay | about 30 min by road | The older resort bay, with the best beach on the island and a forest park behind it. Quieter than Haitang. | |
| Dadonghai | about 35 min by road | A city beach lined with mid-priced hotels and restaurants. Where you stay if you want both a beach and a bus route. | |
| Downtown Sanya | about 35 min by road | Jiyang district around the river, with the First Market and the cheapest everything. The actual city. | |
| Sanya Bay | about 45 min by road | A long stretch of coconut-lined beach west of the centre, with the cheapest seafront rooms. Furthest from the hall. |
Eating before and after
The night before a race is not the night for the best meal of your trip, which is harder discipline than it sounds in a city this good at food.
The resort restaurants in Haitang Bay
Expensive, international, and a five-minute walk from the hall. The night before a race is the one night that trade-off is worth making.
Hainan chicken rice, anywhere
Poached chicken on rice cooked in the stock, the dish Singapore borrowed and made famous. Sold on every street for about twenty yuan.
Hainan food is poached chicken, seafood and coconut, and almost none of it is spicy.
Hai Ya, in Tianya
Wenchang chicken, Dongshan mutton and Jiaji duck, which are three of Hainan's four famous dishes in one room. About fifty yuan a head.
Seafood at the First Market
Buy it from a stall, carry it to a kitchen, agree a price to have it cooked. Noisy, cheap, and the thing people come to Sanya to eat.
Race day supplies
The practical failures that spoil a race weekend are almost never the training. They are forgetting the gels, or carrying a kit bag around a city for six hours.
Pack list
- Electrolytes. It is 24.6°C (76°F) at 75% humidity, which is more than the number looks.
- Swimming things. The sea is about 25°C (77°F) in December and the beach is behind the venue.
- A Chinese payment app, set up before you fly. Cash is awkward here and foreign cards are worse.
Quick tips
- Confirm whether your hotel is in Haitang Bay or downtown. They are 30km apart and both say Sanya.
- Check Hainan's visa rules rather than China's. The island runs its own policy.
Haitang Bay has resort shops and duty-free malls, neither of which sells what you want at six in the morning. Buy supplies downtown or bring them.
The last race in Sanya
Sanya is a recent addition to the Hyrox calendar, so there is little previous form here to pass on.
What happened
The last edition, in short.
- Hyrox is running a festival on the beach at the Grand Hyatt in Haitang Bay across the same two days.
- The venue is in Haitang Bay, 30km from downtown Sanya, so check where your hotel actually is.
What it means for you
How your race differs from that one.
- Humidity is 75% in December, which is a lot if you have come from a northern winter.
- Hainan runs its own visa rules, separate from the rest of China. Check yours against the island, not the country.
What else is on that weekend
A quiet weekend in the city, with one Hyrox event beside the other.
| What | When | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hyrox Fest | 5 and 6 December | The beach at the Grand Hyatt, Haitang Bay | Both race days, a few minutes from the hall. The same organisers, so the schedules will not collide. |
| Chen Li, the Yi Li tenth anniversary tour | 5 December | Bailu Gymnasium, Sanya Sports Center | Saturday evening downtown, 35 minutes from Haitang Bay. No effect on the morning. |
| The start of the high season | December to February | The whole island | Sanya in winter is where the rest of China goes to be warm. Flights and resort rooms are at their yearly peak. |
| The duty-free malls | All weekend | Haitang Bay, beside the venue | The largest duty-free complex in the world is on your doorstep, which is why the district exists. |
What to see
Written for someone racing tomorrow, not a tourist with a week. Each entry says how far it is, because some of these are worth a longer trip and some are not.
Wuzhizhou Island
A small island off Haitang Bay with the clearest water in Hainan, reached by a ten-minute ferry. The ticket includes the crossing and the whole thing takes half a day.
Luhuitou Park
A hill above the city with a deer statue on top and the best view of Sanya laid out along its bays. Go late in the afternoon when the heat drops.
The Nanshan cultural zone
A Buddhist complex on the coast west of the city, built around a 108-metre Guanyin standing in the sea. Larger and stranger than any photograph suggests.
Daxiao Dongtian
A Taoist coastal park of rocks, sea and old inscriptions, free to enter and much quieter than the ticketed attractions. Open 08:30 to 17:30.
What to do
The First Market
Downtown, after dark, where you buy seafood from the stalls and pay a kitchen next door to cook it. Thirty to fifty yuan a head and the best meal in the city.
Swim at Yalong Bay
Seven kilometres of white sand thirty minutes south, with December water at about 25°C (77°F). The best beach on the island and free to walk onto.
The Yalong Bay rainforest park
Trails and walkways up into the hills behind the bay, with a glass bridge and the canopy below you. Steep, hot and worth it for the view back over the coast.
The duty-free malls
Haitang Bay holds the largest duty-free complex in the world and it is why this district was built. Worth an hour even if you buy nothing.
Raced here? Tell us about it.
Anything you wish you had known. It goes into this guide for the next person, and most of them have never done a Hyrox.
Things people find useful
- How early you really needed to arrive
- What caught you out
- What the hall was like inside
- Where your supporters watched from
- Anything good you did in the city
Not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Hyrox. HYROX is a trademark of its owner, used only to describe the races discussed.
This page links to booking and travel sites. Where we have an affiliate arrangement with one we may earn a commission if you book through it, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we list, or the order it appears in.
Last updated November 7th, 2026.