Published in Global Traveler
Visions of Paradise
Photo: Pools on the beach in Hainan © Aleksander Karpenko | Dreamstime.com
China’s crowded, traffic-congested, chaotic cities call for a place to escape the stress and wear and tear, and the solution is Hainan Island, the country’s designated vacation spot — a mountainous, tropical forest ringed with white, sandy beaches.
In 2009, the State Planning Council launched ambitious plans to develop the main island of its southernmost province into a major tourist destination, “the Hawai’i of the East.” The 39,000-page “2010–2020 Hainan International Tourism Island Development Planning Outline” furthers the government’s provisions to cultivate additional areas of tourism, add international air routes, develop infrastructure, expand green options and improve living standards in order to achieve a “worldwide first-class island resort” by the year 2020. read more