Hainan

Hainan

Hainan Province, referred to as "Qiong", is the southernmost provincial administrative region of the people's Republic of China and the provincial capital Haikou. It is China's special economic zone and pilot free trade zone. It is located in South China, bounded by Qiongzhou Strait and Guangdong in the north, Beibu Gulf in the west, opposite Guangxi and Vietnam, South China Sea and Taiwan in the East, and Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia in the South China Sea in the southeast and south. The total land area of Hainan Province is 35400 square kilometers, of which Hainan Island is 33900 square kilometers and the sea area is about 2 million square kilometers.

The outline of Hainan Island is like an oval shaped big Sydney. The terrain is low and flat all around and high in the middle. It is a domed mountain terrain, with Wuzhishan and Yinggeling as the uplift core, and gradually descending to the outside. It is composed of mountains, hills, platforms, plains and other landforms. Hainan has a tropical monsoon climate, warm and hot all year round, and abundant rainfall.

By the end of 2019, Hainan Province has jurisdiction over four prefecture level cities, five county-level cities, four counties and six autonomous counties. The permanent resident population is 9.4472 million, with a GDP of 530.894 billion yuan and a per capita GDP of 56507 yuan.

Historical evolution

According to the archaeological findings, the history of human society in Hainan Island began with the excavation of "Sanya people" 10000 years ago, but there is no written record of the indigenous people on the island.

In the Tang and Yu dynasties, Hainan Island was called "Nanfu Huangjiao" (border), and in the Qin Dynasty it was called "Yuejun Waijing". This shows that Hainan Island was the remote border of the motherland at that time. Hainan Island is one of the four exiles, mainly Yazhou.

During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the island was probably a place of Baiyue. There was a tribal organization "daner kingdom" in the west of the island.

In the 33rd year of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty (214 BC), the south of the five ridges was unified. Guilin County, Nanhai county and Xiang county were set up in the south. Hainan might belong to Xiang county. However, due to the indomitable resistance of Nanyue, the Qin Dynasty did not gain complete control over this newly occupied area, but only "remote leader" in name. At that time, Hainan Island was outside Xiang county. The establishment of the Qin Empire ended the loose feudal system and led to a high degree of centralization. However, the tyranny of Qin Dynasty led to a large-scale peasant uprising, and the second emperor of Qin Dynasty died. Zhao Tuo, who was the magistrate of Longchuan County in Lingnan at that time, acted as the lieutenant (military officer) of Nanhai County in the Qin Dynasty, so he took over the three counties in Lingnan and became the king of Nanyue in 206 BC. Hainan became a dependency of Nanyue in the late Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty, and Longchuan made Zhao Tuo become the king of Nanyue. The power of South Vietnam is all over Hainan Island.

After the rise of the Han Dynasty, Zhao Tuo remained independent, though he was canonized by the Han Dynasty. In the sixth year of Yuanding, Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (111 BC), general Lu bode of Fubo army and General Yang Pu of louchuan led their divisions to pacify the South Vietnam rebellion. In the first year of Yuanfeng (110 BC), zhuya county (governing today's Qiongshan) and daner county (governing today's Danzhou) were set up in Hainan Island, under the jurisdiction of Jiaozhou governor. These are the first two administrative names of Hainan Island in China, marking the beginning of the direct rule of the central government over Hainan Island. In the fifth year of the first Yuan Dynasty (82 BC), Emperor Zhao abolished daner county and merged it into zhuya county. In the spring of the third year of the Yuan Dynasty (46bc), the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty gave up zhuya county and set up Zhulu County, which was subordinate to Hepu County of Jiaozhou. In 65 years, Hainan Island was under the jurisdiction of the central dynasty.