Yulin (Sanya) Naval Base

The Yulin Naval Base (also unofficially known as Sanya Naval Base) is located in Sanya, China’s southernmost city on Hainan Island. The original Yulin base was mainly served as a conventional submarine facility, located on the eastern bank of the Yulin Bay. In recent years, the naval base has expanded into the nearby Yalong Bay, where a major surface fleet base and a nuclear submarine base are located. The naval base is one of the most important bases of the PLA Navy South Sea Fleet, strategically located close to the disputed Xisha (Paracel) and Nansha (Spratly) Islands in the South China Sea, as well as the shipping lands from the Strait of Malacca.

Location of the Yulin Naval Base

A: Yulin submarine base
B: Yalong Bay (Sanya) surface fleet base
C: Nuclear submarine base
D: Sanya City
E: Yalong Bay

The history of the Yulin Nava Base can be traced back to 1946, when the Republic of China (ROC) Navy began to build naval maintenance facilities at Yulin after the end of the WWII. In 1951, the Chinese communist forces crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and captured Hainan Island. Shortly after, the PLA Southern Military Region Navy formed the Yulin Patrol and Defence District. In 1955, the district was renamed Yulin Naval Base, and was assigned to the newly-formed South Sea Fleet. From the 1950s to the late 1990s, the Yulin base mainly served as the home port for the conventional submarine flotilla and some patrol vessels of the South Sea Fleet.

Yulin submarine base (32nd Submarine Flotilla)

The PLAN began to construct a new base at the Yalong Bay, about 8 miles southeast to the original submarine base, in the late 1990s. The Yalong Bay as an average depth of 15~20 metres, suitable for berthing large combatants and submarines. The facilities consist of a 3,200m and a 1,300m waterbreak, a surface fleet base located on the northeast bank of the bay, and a nuclear submarine base on a peninsula  at the eastern part of the bay. The facilities possibly became operational in 2001~2002.

The surface fleet base consists of two finger piers about 1,000m in length, both capable of berthing surface combatants, amphibious warfare ships, larger replenishment oiler ships, and potentially aircraft carriers if necessary. Currently the base is the home port of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla of the South Sea Fleet.

Yalong Bay/Sanya surface fleet base (9th Destroyer Flotilla)

Two Type 052C destroyers docked on the finger pier at the Sanya base (Source: Chinese Internet)

The nuclear submarine base, which was first revealed by the U.S.-base Federation of American Scientists (FAS) website in April 2008, is officially known as 2nd Submarine Base within the PLA Navy. The facility consists of three finger piers for berthing nuclear submarines, an underground submarine facility, and a submarine demagnetisation facility located on the southern tip of the peninsula. The underground facility has a large entrance about 3 metres wide, enough to accommodate large nuclear-powered missile submarines (SSBN). FAS claimed that a Type 094 Jin class SSBN is now permanently based here, but this cannot be confirmed.

Nuclear submarine base (2nd Nuclear Submarine Base)
A: Finger piers for berthing nuclear submarines
B: Entrance of the underground submarine tunnel
C: Nuclear submarine maintenance facilities

Last update: 4 May 2009