Taking a plunge into the clear blue water off the Great Barrier Reef, swimming with turtles and manta rays off Komodo Island…for scuba diver Eva Fan, these experiences feel like a lifetime ago.

Fan is 30-year-old Beijing-based English teacher, who took up diving spontaneously while on vacation in Semporna, Malaysia, a few years ago. She had just passed an introductory course for more advanced diving in tropical waters when the Covid-19 pandemic shut off dream international destinations for Chinese travelers in 2020. Two years later, with border restrictions ongoing, China’s diving enthusiasts have been flocking to domestic diving sites, while trying to improve diving conditions and gain greater recognition for their sport within the country.

Under the recommendation of her Mexican coach, Fan tried to dive through the pandemic by trying Qiandao (“Thousand Island”) Lake in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. But instead of the balmy waters, schools of tropical fish, and colorful reefs she had trained for, she was faced with the unexpected challenge of a cold, dark lake. A single kick could stir up underwater sludge and reduce visibility to zero. “It was diving hell,” Fan tells TWOC.

Underwater diving is still a fairly unknown sport in China, and before the pandemic, domestic sites attracted few recreational divers thanks to challenging conditions and a lack of internationally credentialed diving instructors. Conversely, divers and instructors note that around 2015 overseas sites experienced a boom in the number of Chinese tourists going abroad to learn scuba diving, due to inexpensive prices and excellent underwater conditions. Southeast Asia became their top destination.

Covid put paid to that boom, with Chinese diving fans forced to look elsewhere. Domestic diving sites that have subsequently seen a wave of tourists include Wuzhizhou in Sanya and the city of Wanning, both on the tropical island of Hainan. According to travel app Feizhu, reservations for diving rose by 200 percent during 2021’s “Golden Week” holiday in October compared to the previous year, and searches for the term grew by 54 percent on shopping app Meituan.