Visitors marvel at a 68-meter tall shark and whale aquarium at the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

More Chinese tourists are spending vacations by the sea, with Sanya leading the domestic market, Li Wenfang reports.

Yu Yong, a businessman in his 40s and working in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, enjoys spending his vacations by the seaside with his family.

He has traveled to "almost all the islands in Southeast Asia," and some islands in coastal Fujian and Guangdong provinces in the country.

Seaside vacations have become a top choice for more and more Chinese travelers, as they are no longer satisfied with hurried sightseeing and seek more specialty and leisure experiences, according to a report by Ctrip, a major Chinese online travel agency.

Ctrip's clients for such holidays grew by 15 and 21 percent annually in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Domestic seaside resorts, thanks to their proximity and accessibility to consumers, make for good options.

According to the company, bookings to Sanya, in the tropical island of Hainan province, increased by 30 percent in 2018, with the resort being favored by those escaping the cold weather or the bad-air days in the north

Part of the water entertainment facilities at the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Women account for 58 percent of the total number of seaside tourists, and 65 percent are in their 30s or younger, according to the travel agency's data for 2018, though family groups also make up an important part of its beach-loving clientele.

This year's top 10 domestic seaside destinations were Sanya, Xiamen, Qingdao, Zhoushan, Haikou, Qinhuangdao, Zhuhai, Dalian, Ningbo and Beihai.

The top 10 cities producing seaside travelers were Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Wuhan.

Although they may not be as globally well-known as the Maldives or Bali, Indonesia, the islands in China enjoy tremendous potential for tourism, according to experts.

More than 11,000 islands dot the country's territory, mostly located in the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong in the east and the south, according to China's State Oceanic Administration.

Natural attractions and cultural sites officially recognized on those islands, excluding islands in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao and the provincial island of Hainan, totaled 1,028 and 775, respectively, at the end of 2017, with 72 beach resorts operating, according to Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.