Chinese tourists abandoned at sea for two hours

The incident was brought into the limelight after one of the tourists wrote on Weibo, saying they had been taken by a yacht to a diving location near Zhouzai Island in Hainan Province on June 9.

They completed their diving at 4:15 p.m. and waited until 6 p.m. but the vessel did not return to pick them up, forcing them to swim back to the shore for safety fears as it turned dark, Shangyou News reported.

The tourists described their travel experience as ‘terrible’ as none of them had a mobile phone with them, according to South China Morning Post.

They finally reached the shore at 8 p.m. after a two-hour swim. They then took another half an hour to walk to a big road where they got a lift to hospital for treatment.

After the incident went viral on social media, the yacht company that took them to diving location contacted the tourists and wanted to offer them 10-times the value of the ship tickets they had bought as compensation.

However, the group refused as they hoped the authorities would step in to avoid similar incidents from happening again.

Many Chinese netizens have expressed their shock and anger on social media.

"Who dares to go after this?" a netizen wrote on Weibo.