In Sanya, Learning to Slow Down as a Mother
Seven Days with the Calendar Turned Off
My life has long been ruled by an Outlook calendar—morning meetings, client proposals, financial analysis, and my son’s extracurriculars squeezed into every spare slot. I’ve been spinning like a wind-up top, ceaselessly.
I decided to come to Sanya when I suddenly realized how long it had been since I last truly saw my son’s face light up with laughter. I needed a place that required no planning, no rushing—somewhere I could just drop myself and my child into, and life would naturally soften and brighten. Sanya became my escape hatch.
The Healing Spell of Haitang Bay
As our car pulled into the resort in Haitang Bay, the faint scent of frangipani flowers hung in the air. In that single moment, the tension I’d been carrying simply began to ease.
Here, parenting no longer felt like a perfectly orchestrated battle. The kids’ club was thoughtfully and expertly run—while my son excitedly joined a treasure hunt, I finally had time that was entirely my own.
At the AHAVA Spa in Atlantis, I tried a Dead Sea mud treatment. Lying on the treatment bed, listening to soft music, I could feel every layer of weariness gently dissolve. In the evening, we walked hand in hand along the beach. My son saw a hermit crab for the first time and knelt, mesmerized, for half an hour. I didn’t hurry him; I just stayed quietly beside him. In that moment, I wasn’t the driven “Director Zhang”—I was simply a mother with time to spare.
A Lesson in Nature at Qingtang Village
Hoping to let my child feel the earth beneath his feet, we visited Qingtang Village. What we found far exceeded my expectations. I had thought Sanya was all sea and luxury hotels; I never imagined it held a patch of storybook countryside like this. In this little place known as the “Rainbow Tribe,” my son rolled up his trousers and stepped into a rice paddy for the first time, planting seedlings with his own hands. At the pottery studio, he became a little clay-smeared kitten. Watching his mud-streaked, utterly radiant smile, it hit me: the best classrooms aren’t in expensive early-learning centers, but in the wide-open heart of nature.
The Most Luxurious Gift
The day before returning to Shanghai, I visited the Sanya International Duty-Free Shopping Centre. As a reward to myself, I bought the handbag I’d long admired and a full set of skincare products. But the most precious souvenir from this trip wasn’t any of those fine things—it was the tender, rekindled bond between my son and me. What Sanya gave me was the most luxurious gift modern city life can offer: a stretch of pure, unhurried, wholehearted time together.