Islands in the sun

Luo Honghu, whose skin has become dark after continued exposure to the sun, excitedly showed visitors photos on his smartphone near an exhibition booth at a tourism fair last week. The photos were of clear blue sea, clusters of fish, coral reefs and sailboats.

The beautiful scenery was not shot in the Maldives, or the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea.

Luo traveled to the southern islands by sailboat.

"We sailed for about 21 hours on the sea from Sanya to the Xisha North Reef. I saw dolphins and even flying fish during the journey, which reminded me of the Hollywood movie Life of Pi," Luo told the Global Times Friday on the sidelines of the China National Tourism Fair 2013 held in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Luo has a mariner certificate, which allows him to travel to the Xisha Islands freely. Mainland tourists might also get the opportunity to explore the coral reefs as early as the forthcoming May Day holidays.

Open for tourism soon

According to information on tuniu.com, a domestic online travel agency, a five-day package tour from Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan Province, to the Xisha Islands is now available for online booking.

Tourists will travel by a cruise ship named the Coconut Princess, which can accommodate 281 people, to the Yongle Archipelago and Quanfu Island. Prices for the tour range from 7,250 yuan ($1,173) to 8,550 yuan per person, depending on the accommodation. The maiden voyage will be on Saturday, the website said.

Currently the package tour is only available for Chinese mainland citizens. People who are obese or who have special dietary requirements are advised against joining the tour due to conditions on the ship, where tourists will spend most of their time during the journey, according to tuniu.com.

By Tuesday, 10 people had booked the tour through the website.

People in cities including Chong­qing, Changsha and Nanjing can also book the tour with local travel agencies, according to reports from local newspapers.

"The cost of operating such a cruise tour is not high, but the operator set a high price because of the administrative monopoly over the route," Liu Simin, a researcher with the Tourism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Sunday.

Coconut Princess, owned by Hainan Strait Shipping Co, is the only cruise ship approved by the provincial transportation department to sail to the Xisha Islands. The company estimated the route will bring it an annual net profit of 6.53 million yuan, according to a statement it released last August.

"Once the Xisha Islands tour is open to more cruise ships, the price will go down," Liu said.