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Places in China: Hainan Province

Being a tropical island province, actually made up of one large island and around two hundred small ones, much of the economic benefits it derives come from the sea and from tourist income at the resort areas. The southern shore of the larger island has a number of higher class resorts. In fact, the Miss World Pageant was held there in 2004.

Other income for Hainan includes pearl harvesting and fishing off the shores as well as some hardwood trees and mineral deposits. Farming is successful also in this tropical area of the world. However, tourism is a major source of their income.

Winters are rather mild at Hainan Province with the summers making up for them in heat and humidity. Some of the rivers in the main island dry up during the summer.

The larger island has mountains and thick forests in the centre with the shores being used for fishing and beach resorts. The resorts are largely on the southern shore where miles of white sand beaches beckon great numbers of tourists. The city of Sanya is where to find the majority of beach resorts.

A major highway links Sanya in the south with Haikou, the provincial capital. Other highways line the shore areas. A railroad on the western side of Hainan Island helps with transportation needs.

Hainan became a Special Economic Zone in 1988. Hainan' history shows that it has been a part of two other provinces. The SEZ status was an aid to Hainan's efforts to see itself as successful.

Hainan is a small province compared to most of the other provinces in China. Its size includes a land area of 13,000 square miles. The people, made up of eighty-three percent Han, thirteen percent Li and a sprinkling of other ethnic groups, number eight million with 241 persons per square kilometre.

Golf, water sports and scuba diving make up a lot of the tourism activity of Hainan. There are nine hundred thirty miles of coastline and around three hundred sunshiny days per year to make this a perfect tourist attraction.

International flights from several Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong as well as Chinese locations make it easy to reach Hainan by air.