Tourist dies during night reef dive on Chinese holiday island

A tourist died in southern China’s Hainan province on a night dive for conches with two others near a resort on the weekend, China News Service reported.

The man, whose name was not disclosed, drowned after giving his lifebuoy to a female companion who was swamped by a wave as they were diving near a reef at the foot of a hill near Yalong Bay on Friday night, local authorities said.

The woman survived and pulled the man to a rock with the help of another man. They gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation but failed to save him, Sanya’s maritime rescue centre was quoted as saying.

The duo called for help at about 10.16pm, but rescuers only arrived at their location, 2km from a public road, at about 12.25am, it said. The waves were so strong that rescuers could not use a boat and had to clamber over slippery rocks in the dark.

The tourists made their way back with the help of rescuers an hour later and were sent for medical care. A helicopter was dispatched to collect the body of the man who died, the centre said.

Drownings are frequent in Sanya, a popular tourist destination known as the “Chinese Hawaii”.

A Russian tourist became hero in Chinese and Russian media last month after he saved the life of a Chinese man who was drowning in Sanya’s Dadonghai Bay. Rescuers pulled the man to the beach but did not know how to resuscitate him, Sanya Daily reported.

He regained consciousness after the Russian man cleared his respiratory tract and gave him artificial respiration.