Hainan

Hainan is China’s southernmost province, made up of the main island of Hainan plus many smaller islands in the South China Sea. The name means “South of the Sea.” The province covers 33,920 square kilometers; Hainan Island itself accounts for 32,900 of those, and the rest consists of over 200 islands spread across the Zhongsha, Xisha, and Nansha archipelagos. From 1950 to 1988, Hainan was part of Guangdong Province. In 1988, it became its own province and, under Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening-up policy, was designated a special economic zone.

The majority of the population—82%—are Han Chinese, who speak a mix of languages including Standard Chinese, Hainam Min, Yue Chinese, Cantonese, and Hakka. Indigenous peoples, notably the Hlai (a Kra-Dai-speaking group), make up 15% of the population and are native to the island. The Chinese government recognizes the Hlai as one of the country’s 56 official ethnic groups. Speakers of Be, though they also speak a Kra-Dai language, are officially classified as Han Chinese. The Jiamao language, whose origins are debated, is also spoken on the island.

The province has ten major cities and ten counties. The capital, Haikou, sits on the northern coast, while Sanya, on the southern coast, is a well-known tourist destination. Other major cities include Wenchang, Sansha, Qionghai, Wanning, Wuzhishan, Dongfang, and Danzhou. According to China’s territorial claims, several disputed areas in the South China Sea—such as the Spratly Islands (Nansha) and Paracel Islands (Xisha)—are administered under Sansha city. China fully controls the Paracels, but many of the Spratly Islands are held by other countries, including Vietnam and the Philippines.

In 2020, the Chinese government announced a large-scale plan to turn the entire island province into the Hainan Free Trade Port, aiming to make it the world’s largest free-trade port by 2035. The plan focuses on building a hub for offshore financing and duty-free shopping, using lower taxes and relaxed visa rules to attract foreign businesses and tourists. Starting in 2025, all goods shipped from Hainan to the rest of China are treated as imports. Island-wide independent customs operations began that same year.

The province’s name comes from its main island, Hainan (in Hainanese, “Hai Nam”), which is named for its location south of the Qiongzhou Strait. (The land north of the strait, the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong, is sometimes called Haibei, or “North of the Sea.”) Older names for Hainan Island include Zhuya, Qiongya, and Qiongzhou. The latter two gave the province its abbreviation, 瓊 (Qióng/Kheng). During the 17th and 18th centuries, European explorers called it “Aynam,” which is still how locals pronounce the name in the Hainanese dialect.

Some scholars believe Hainan was once attached to what is now northeastern Vietnam, breaking away after a volcanic eruption and drifting southeast near China millions of years ago, during the Mesozoic. The Baiyue people, among the earliest Kra-Dai residents, are thought to have settled on the island at least 2,000 to 6,000 years ago, carrying genetic markers from ancient people who arrived between 7,000 and 27,000 years ago.

Chinese officials recorded Hainan Island in 110 BC, when the Western Han dynasty established a military garrison there after General Lu Bode’s arrival. Sinicization was driven by Han territorial expansion and the settlement of Han military and administrative personnel. Over centuries, Chinese dynasties exiled criminals and political dissidents to Hainan and northern Vietnam, often under Guangdong’s jurisdiction. Exiles endured harsh labor in the tropical climate. One famous exile was Su Shi, a Song-era poet and politician, who wrote extensively about his time on the island in the 11th century. After that century, large numbers of Han Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong migrated to the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan, displacing the indigenous Li people (part of the Baiyue tribes) and pushing them into the mountainous southern part of the island. The Ming dynasty placed Hainan under Guangdong’s administration.

Under the Republic of China, established in 1912, Hainan was part of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, designated as the Qiongya Circuit. In 1921, it was planned to become a special administrative region, and in 1944 it became the Hainan Special Administrative Region, covering 16 counties, including the South China Sea Islands. Japan occupied the island in 1939 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Surviving ROC forces retreated inland and demanded support from the indigenous Hlai people. The ROC suppressed the Hlai’s Baisha Uprising and carried out reprisals; the Hlai then allied with the Communists.