Finding Seafood in Sanya, China

Sanya, is the southern most city in China, second largest in Hainan province. Because it’s warm weather all year around, it’s a top destination for people in the colder area to take their vacation (similar to Florida to Americans living in the north)

When you come to a city next to the ocean, you would like to enjoy some fresh seafood. But where do you go is always a challenge. Do you go to the fancy restaurant in the city center near all the hotels? Nahh, those are typically more expensive and may not be as good in flavors as the locals won’t eat there.

So with some research and ask around locals like the DiDi Drivers (Chinese version of Uber), we found this place call 火车头万人海鲜加工广场 （Huo Che Tou Wan Ren Hai Xian Jia Gong Guang Chang), simple translation – Locomotive Seafood Plaza. Why “locomotive”? Because it’s not far from the Sanya Train Station. Address? It’s around 20 Hai Run Lu (Hairun Road). If you are taking taxi or DiDi just ask for the Chinese name, it will be easier. It’s about 10KM (6 miles) from the city center.

Once you get there, don’t be shocked as it’s not just bunch of restaurants, but open air kitchens with tables in front surrounding a seafood market. You can almost fish your food from the water tanks from where you are going to enjoy them.

Purchase seafood from the water tanks and other beverages from stores near by

Price range from 10 YUAN to few hundreds YUAN per 500g depending on the rareness

Open air kitchen

This seafood market has regulation on the price, so all vendors have similar price. You’ll be only comparing the freshness and liveliness of the seafood. Also, all of the vendors also have their kitchens in the plaza. So you can purchase the seafood first if you know what you want and the vendor can take you to their kitchen or the other way around, find a kitchen first and one of the chefs can take you to their vendor to buy seafood.

You can find all kinds of seafood here: fishes, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, shellfishes, etc. Some you may have never seen before. So go with what you know first and be adventures as well.

Our dinner for 2

Once you purchase what you want to eat, bring to the kitchen and you can discuss how you want them to be prepared. The chefs can recommend traditional way, or you can ask for special flavor if they can accommodate that. The chef will also discuss how much preparation fee plus services fee will cost you. Preparation fee ranges from 10-50+ YUAN depend on the seafood type, preparation technique and quality.

We bought seven kinds of seafood – sea urchin (2 of them), three kinds of shrimp including mantis shrimp,  one kind of crab (4 of them), regular clam and razor clam. We spend  just over 300 YUAN (almost $50 USD) on the seafood and about 120 YUAN (~ $20 USD) on preparation and service including a plate of fried rice for my son.

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Tips to share:

• When you are in city like Sanya, don’t just go to the fancy seafood restaurants near hotels or tourist spots. Over priced!
• Try to avoid the area called “No. 1 Seafood Market” in the city center. It’s bit messy and not managed well.
• When you are in this plaza, don’t get caught by the kitchens near the entrance which are mostly crowded. Go explore more in the back of the plaza as you can find a quieter place which chef may have more time to prepare you food better.
• Try different kind of seafood instead of eating too much of one kind. For two of us, we bought about 500-750g (1-1.5 LB) of each kind.
• Don’t spend too much money on the expensive items unless you REALLY wanted them. E.g. few hundreds for a Australian lobster or some special fish.