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After Joyce Wu moved from Hainan province to Hong Kong in 2013, she marvelled for years at the increasingly crowded skyline of Haikou on visits home. The gleaming high-rises continued to spring up across the southern island\u2019s capital as an economic boom, driven by property values, reshaped the city.<\/p>\n
Around 2020, that momentum began to fade. In place of cranes and concrete, Wu noticed a quieter shift: more professionals and foreign academics arriving through university partnerships, and growing business interest from outside the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were clearly not tourists,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were professionals or researchers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her observation mirrors Hainan\u2019s broader transformation \u2013 after the bursting of three speculative booms that were driven by policy windfalls, the province\u2019s previously tourism-centred economy is moving towards a more sustainable growth pattern revolving around its new status as a free-trade port, even as long-standing structural constraints remain a challenge.<\/p>\n
On December 18, the island \u2013 with more than 10 million people and a slightly larger surface area than Belgium \u2013 became a customs territory separate from the rest of mainland China.<\/p>\n
The move exempted around 6,600 categories of goods from tariffs \u2013 about 74 per cent of taxable imports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n