Place:Hainan, People's Republic of China

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Hainan (; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China, makes up the vast majority (97%) of the province. "Hainan", the name of the island and the province, literally means "south of the sea", reflecting its position south of the Qiongzhou Strait, which separates it from Leizhou Peninsula. Hainan is officially known as Hainan Island.

The province has a land area of , of which Hainan the island is and the rest is over 200 islands scattered across three archipelagos: Zhongsha, Xisha and Nansha. It was part of Guangdong from 1950–88, after which it resumed as a top-tier entity and almost immediately made the largest Special Economic Zone by Deng Xiaoping as part of the then-ongoing Chinese economic reform program.

Indigenous peoples like the Hlai, a Kra–Dai-speaking ethnic group, are longest-native to the island and comprise 15% of the population. Their native languages include the Hlai languages. They are recognized by the Chinese government as one of the country's 56 ethnic groups. The Han population, who compose a majority of the population at 82%, speak a wide variety of languages including Standard Chinese, Hainam Min, Yue Chinese, Cantonese, Be language, Hakka Chinese, etc.

There are ten major cities and ten counties in Hainan Province. The capital of the province is Haikou, on the northern coast of Hainan Island, while Sanya is a well-known tourist destination on the southern coast. The other major cities are Wenchang, Sansha, Qionghai, Wanning, Wuzhishan, Dongfang and Danzhou.

According to China's territorial claims, several territories in the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands (Nansha) and Paracel Islands (Xisha), are notionally administered under Sansha city of the province.

On 1 June 2020, a large-scale plan was announced by the Chinese government to transform the entire island province into a free trade port (FTP), with the aim of turning it into the largest special economic zone in China.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Prehistoric era

Hainan was originally attached to the Northeastern part of what is now Vietnam; however, the island was formed after it physically broke away from Vietnam due to a volcanic eruption and drifted southeast near China after the Mesozoic, millions of years ago.

The Baiyue people are among the earliest Kra-Dai residents to arrive on Hainan island. They are believed to have settled there at least 2 to 6 thousand years ago, and carry genetic markers from ancient people who reached the island between 7 and 27 thousand years ago.

Imperial Era

Hainan Island was recorded by Chinese mandarin officials in 110 BC, when the Han dynasty of China established a military garrison there following the arrival of General Lu Bode. In 46 BC the Han court decided that the conquest was too expensive and abandoned the island. Han Chinese people together with military personnel and officials began to migrate to Hainan Island from the mainland. Among them were the offspring of those who were banished to Hainan for political reasons.

Republic of China

Hainan was historically part of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces and as such was the Qiongya Circuit under the 1912 establishment of the Republic of China. In 1921, it was planned to become a special administrative region; in 1944, it became Hainan Special Administrative Region with 16 counties, including the South China Sea Islands.

During the 1920s and 30s, Hainan was a hotbed of Banditry, many opposition politicians were hanged, therefore opposition politicians went into hiding. The Communists and the indigenous Hlai people fought a vigorous guerrilla campaign against the Japanese that were only able to occupy some Hainan territories, but in retaliation the Japanese launched numerous massacres against Hlai villages. Feng Baiju led the Hainan Independent Column of fighters throughout the 1930s and 1940s. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Kuomintang reestablished control. Hainan was one of the last areas to eventually come under the administration of the People's Republic, having been under the control of ROC forces until March 1950. The People's Republic attacked Hainan on April 10, 1950 and attained complete control on May 1.

People's Republic of China

On 1 May 1950, under the People's Republic of China, the Hainan Special Administrative Region became an Administrative Region Office, a branch of the Guangdong provincial government. During the mid-1980s, when Hainan Island was still part of Guangdong Province, a fourteen-month episode of marketing zeal by Hainan Special District Administrator Lei Yu put Hainan's pursuit of provincial status under a cloud. It involved the duty-free imports from Hong Kong of 90,000 Japanese-made cars and trucks at a cost of ¥ 4.5 billion (US$1.5 billion), and exporting them – with the help of local naval units – to the mainland, making 150% profits. By comparison, only 10,000 vehicles were imported into Hainan since 1950. In addition, it involved further consignments of 2.9 million TV sets, 252,000 videocassette recorders & 122,000 motorcycles. The money was taken from the 1983 central government funds destined for the construction of the island's transportation infrastructure (roads, railways, airports, harbors) over the next ten years.

On 1 October 1984, it became the Hainan Administrative Region, with a People's Government, and finally as province separate from Guangdong four years later. In 1988, when the island was made a separate province, it was designated a Special Economic Zone in an effort to increase investment.

The central government funds were deemed insufficient by the Hainan authorities for the construction of the island's other infrastructures (water works, power stations, telecommunications, etc.) and had taken a very liberal interpretation of the economic and trade regulations for Hainan and thirteen coastal cities; the regulations did not mention on prohibiting the re-selling of second-hand goods. Some of the proceeds, from unsold units, were later retrieved by the central government to re-finance the special district.

In June 2020, China announced a master plan for Hainan's free trade port system. Announced by state-owned media Xinhua News Agency, "Hainan will “basically establish a free trade port system by 2025 and become more mature by 2035.” South China Morning Post described such an initiative as an effort of PRC to "replace Hong Kong as the trading entrepôt" while Cheng Shi, of ICBC International has refused to accept such a claim. Additionally, experts have raised concern about the question of compliance of global trading practices particularly for this project.

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