There is a long stretch of sand full of tourists in the Chinese holiday city of Sanya but no one is sunbathing. Aside from a handful of Russians, the local Chinese who make up the majority of beachgoers huddle under umbrellas: for a culture that still prizes pale skin, suntans are not in vogue. Yet business is booming and the tropical island of Hainan, where Sanya and its five-star resorts are located, is fast being dubbed the “Hawaii of the east”.

Hainan attracts the well-heeled and the beautiful. Some holidaymakers sport Speedos, others wear stilettos. Among the many golf courses, spas, shopping malls and resorts that have sprung up are private villas and apartments sold as second homes. Hainan is a short flight from many of China’s traffic- and smog-filled cities and, without the visa requirements needed for foreign travel, it is the perfect weekend getaway.

Escape, though, is largely restricted to the wealthy. Depending on location and ocean views, a 200 sq metre apartment in Sanya will cost a minimum of ￡1m rising to ￡10m for a 700 sq metre super-villa. “Demand is going up,” says Stanley Cheung, senior manager of investment and sales for southern China at the international estate agents Savills. “The house prices [in Hainan] have had 10 to 15 per cent annual growth.”