Hainan is China's tropical island — a large teardrop-shaped province off the south coast, roughly level with Hanoi, that the Chinese treat the way Americans treat Florida or Brits treat the Costa del Sol. Until the late 1980s it was a backwater of fishing villages and banana plantations; since being designated a Special Economic Zone in 1988, the south coast has exploded into a ribbon of resort hotels, and the beaches around Sanya are now the Chinese package-holiday destination, widely if optimistically nicknamed "the Hawaii of China".
Haikou, the provincial capital in the north, still carries some traces of its pre-boom life — a compact old town, an arcaded shopping street, and a busy night-food scene. Most visitors, though, head straight to the south coast for the beaches at Yalong Bay and Dadonghai, the dramatic headland of Luhuitou, and the cliffside inscriptions at Tianyahaijiao — the famous "end of the earth" calligraphy that lent the island its poetic old name.
Away from the resort strips, Hainan's interior is rugged and culturally distinct. The island is home to the Li and Miao minorities, who live in the central mountains around the Wuzhishan range. Inland villages, rainforest reserves, and tea plantations offer a very different trip from the cocktail bars of Sanya — worth the short drive.
