Here's a roundup of leisurely tours through three of China's southern provinces, where visitors can embrace nature, experience ancient customs and have fun.

Hainan, perfect vacationland

Sea, sand, sun and someone you love, Hainan is a perfect choice for winter tours. Sea is the island's greatest treasure. The water's warm currents from the south keep the island's southern tip warm and humid with lush vegetation and beautiful sandy beaches everywhere.

Along its 1,500-kilometer sea coast, nearly half are beaches of fine soft sands. With almost no heavy industry on the island, this tourist paradise has the cleanest seawater in China. Divers and water sports fans have long pilgrimaged to the small islands off Sanya.

Home to ethnic minorities like the Miao, Li and Hui, this destination also appeals to people interested in colorful cultural traditions and customs. There are exotic tropical gardens to visit and abundant fruits to taste.

Luxury seekers have many choices in Sanya, the most southern Chinese city, with five-star hotels lining its sea coast. One of the newest is Sandalwood Bay, a resort 60 kilometers from Sanya. The resort hotel stands at the foot of green mountains and is built in Venetian style. The main buildings surround a lily-filled lagoon. The hotel also boasts a 1.6-kilometer exclusive sandy beach as well as golf courses.

How to get there: There are trains leaving from Guangzhou to Haikou, the provincial capital in the north, and flights to Haikou and Sanya from Shenzhen. An expressway network covers the island so it’s convenient to travel by coaches between cities.

For those fed up with ubiquitous traffic jams, streets crowded with advertisements and looming skyscrapers endemic to modern cities, seven days away from it all is a gift from the gods — the Chinese gods in the case of the Spring Festival holiday. So don't waste this weeklong manna from heaven by sleeping or vegetating in front of the TV.

Guilin, practical vacationland

All Chinese children have learned an essay in primary school that tells them "East or West, Guilin's landscape is the best." This makes Guilin a practical choice for beginner tourists, who can enjoy green mountains reflected in the clear Lijiang River and impressive Karst caverns with stalagmites in all exotic shapes. Guilin is favored by many because its beauty is quintessentially Chinese — the landscape reminds many of ink paintings that have been the subject of Chinese artists for centuries.

Those who want to try something different can have fun in Merryland Resort, a theme park a half-hour bus ride from downtown Guilin. During the Spring Festival holiday, visitors will see 40,000 camellias in full blossom. In addition to a golf club and a beautiful lake, the resort also holds a 90-hectare amusement park with themes of the American Wild West, a South Pacific island, a Caribbean pirate boat and a childhood dream world. The amusement park is not much different from others, so if you don’t have children you’d do well to pass on this.

How to get there: There are trains, flights and tour buses to Guilin from Shenzhen. Buses pick up tourists from the Guilin Bus Station to Merryland Resort. A ticket is 20 yuan per person.

Yunnan, peaceful vacationland

LIjiang is a good place to escape from modern life — and reality.

Judging from all the stories posted on the Internet about romantic love in Lijiang, an ancient city in Yunnan Province, this is a good place to escape from modern life — and reality. The first thing people learn as they begin to walk the city's ancient stone pavement is to forget. Well-preserved stone bridges and exotic green waterweeds in the river that surrounds the city might make visitors wonder if time has stopped here. Many buildings in the city date back to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and local women sing songs passed down for generations. Walking on the Sifang (Square) Street at the center of the city, people enjoy the view of snow-capped Yulong Mountain in the distance.

Those who want to enjoy the serene beauty of Lugu Lake must first endure a tiring bus journey on the zigzagging mountain roads. Lugu Lake also appeals to tourists who fancy the ancient custom of "romantic relationships unbound by marriage" unique to the matriarchal Mosuo people.

How to get there: There are direct flights from Shenzhen to Lijiang. The bus ride from Lijiang to Lugu Lake takes about eight hours. The bus leaves daily at 9 a.m., and the fare is about 50 yuan per person.

(Shenzhen Daily January 20, 2009)