Hainan Tours

Hainan is China’s tropical counterweight: an island the size of Belgium with rainforest in the middle, resorts on the south coast and a winter climate that makes the rest of the country jealous.

The island

Hainan sits at the same latitude as Hawaii and shares its trade winds. The north, around Haikou, is humid and commercial; the south, around Sanya, is drier and warmer, which is why the resorts concentrated there. Inland, the Wuzhishan massif holds the last remaining tropical rainforest in China, home to the Li and Miao minority communities who have farmed and woven here for millennia.

People and culture

The Li are Hainan’s indigenous people, known for li brocade — a complex weaving of cotton and hemp dyed with plant indigo, once used to record history in pattern. In the villages around Wuzhishan and Baisha you can still see looms in use. Hainanese food is its own tradition: Wenchang chicken poached in coconut water, coconut rice, and seafood grilled with garlic and lime.

Two ways to do it

Resort Hainan is a straightforward beach holiday: Yalong Bay or Haitang Bay, a good hotel, a spa, a sailing afternoon, a day trip to Wuzhizhou Island for snorkelling. Real Hainan adds the interior — rainforest walks at Jianfengling, the Li villages, the volcanic crater park near Haikou, and the old streets of Haikou’s Qilou district.

When to go

November to April is the season: 24–30°C, low humidity, occasional showers. Chinese New Year is extremely busy — book months ahead or avoid. May to October is hot, humid and typhoon season, with lower prices and dramatic skies.

After a week on the plateau, Hainan is the decompression chamber: sea level, warm water, nothing to acclimatise to.