Sun, sea, sand…. At a latitude of 18 degrees north, Hainan Province offers all the seductions of a tropical paradise, and mainland China has grand ambitions to make this island into an international tourist destination.
Back in the 1990s, Hainan was pretty much wasteland everywhere you looked. But then Taiwanese investors arrived with capital, technology, and suitable plant varieties, and today, after two decades of effort, they have given Hainan a solid foundation in agriculture as the sole region in all of China producing tropical fruit.
But, to paraphrase an idiom, live by the land, die by the land. In recent years Hainan has been moving forward with plans to develop its tourism and leisure industries, and the local government has been reclaiming vast amounts of land that had been leased to Taiwanese. Do Hainan’s Taiwanese agribusiness operators have any options for the future?
A team from Taiwan Panorama recently visited Hainan, and we will be telling you the story of Taiwanese investors in Hainan in this issue and the next.
This month we tell the story of the successes achieved by investors in the agricultural sector, and of their anxiety over the possible lack of land in the future. Next month we will talk about more recent arrivals to Hainan: well-connected and enthusiastic young people who are embracing the development of the recreation and tourism industry.
The old battlegrounds of Hainan may already be “scorched earth.” But there are also new fronts opening up on the island. Where do Taiwanese agribusinesses go from here?
Hainan Fact File
Area: 34,000 square kilometers
Population: 8.6 million
Provincial capital: Haikou City
Provincial GDP: US$39 billion
Per-capita GDP: US$4400
Pheonix Island, located in Sanya in southern Hainan, is a manmade island. This sunset image evokes the kind of leisurely tropical atmosphere that the local government wants to promote to travelers.
Tropical Hainan is the only place in China where you can see large-scale coconut plantations.
Traditional houseboats on the Sanya River.
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