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HaiNan Island is the second-largest island in China. The island faces the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong
Province across the Qiongzhou Straits and VietNam across the Gulf of Tonkin. It had a population of 7,000,000 at the end
of 1994, among whom are some ethnic groups, including the Li, Miao and Hui.
Its geography is shoreline but higher in the centre from which radiate the island's rivers. Twenty
percent of the island is mountainous,15% hilly and 65% is plain and tableland. Two major ports, Haikou and Yulin, are
along its 1,440-kilometre coastline.
HaiNan Province,
known as Qiongzhou in ancient times, has long been under the
jurisdiction of Guangdong Province. But in 1984 May, the decision was approved to establish the HaiNan
Administrative District on the island at the Second Session of the Sixth National People's Congress.
Under the district's jurisdiction are also the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha
islands in the South China Sea. The district governing body is the HaiNan Administrative District's Government under the
Guangdong Provincial People's Government. In 1987 August, the State Council made a proposal to establish HaiNan as a
province. In 1988, HaiNan Island became China's 30th province and its largest economic zone.
The HaiNan Province administers three cities, 16 counties, as well as the islands and reefs of
the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands and Zhongsha Islands and seawaters around them.
The province has an area of 34,000 sq km, an average temperature between 22 and 26 degrees
centigrade and an annual rainfall of 1,600 to 2,000 millimetres. HaiNan has more than 4,000 species of plants,
accounting for 15 percent of the country's total, and 600 of them are native to the island. It is estimated that 344
species of birds and 77 kinds of animals dwell in HaiNan, of which gibbons, pangolins, rhesus monkeys and civet cats
have been put under state protection. The province also boasts 50 types of minerals.
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Location: HaiNan Province is an island south-west of China.
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Tropical beaches beckon tourists |
Area: 34,000 square kilometres
Climate: HaiNan Island has a tropical monsoon climate with annual average temperature
22ºC-26ºC and annual rainfall 1500-2000-millimetres. More than 300
days of a year are sunny days. HaiNan is a good place for escaping cold, relieving summer heat, having holidays and
traveling due to above-mentioned climate.
Provincial capital: HaiKou
Population: 7.87 millions (March 2001)
Ethnic groups: Han nationality - totaling 84.1% of the population - and the rest are the Li,
Miao, Hui and other minority ethnic groups. The Li nationality has a population of 980,400 people, and the Miao, 45,600.
Major Cities: Sanya
Agriculture: Tropical high-yield agriculture
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Modern resorts welcome visitors |
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employing modern techniques has risen sharply and keeps on developing and research towards
industrialisation, and has commenced development tropical tourism ecological and high technology agriculture.
A significant development of Chinas agricultural industry is occurring in HaiNan, where
cultivation will be centralised and will include natural rubber, seed research, vegetables and winter melons, tropical
fruits, flowers and plants as well as marine aquiculture. HaiNan has a reputation for farm produce of high quality, and
begun its transformation from the superior farm produce to that of farm cash crops and processing industries. This has
resulted in the agricultural base in HaiNan in being reinforced.
Industry: Focusing attention on market demand and intensifying both application of new
technology and exploitation of superior resources have resulted in renovation of traditional industry and rapid growth
of newly–developed industry. At present, an industrial complex is beginning to take shape with mainstay of natural gas,
chemicals, building materials, beverage, food stuff, medicinal, chemical fibres, textiles, machinery, electronics,
metallurgy, information, etc.
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