Hainan province is located at south end of China , neighboring Philippines to the southeast, Malaysia and Brunei to the south, Indonesia to the southwest, and Vietnam to the west, across Taiwan Strait . It occupies an area of 35,000 square kilometers. Its administrative regions are Hainan Island , Xisha archipelago, Zhongsha archipelago and Nansha archipelago . Haikou is the provincial capital city.

One hundred million years ago, Hainan was separated from the mainland and became an island because earth crust was broken and Qiongzhou Strait was sunk. It is the largest ocean island and the smallest land province in China . The history of Hainan dates back to 110BC during the reign of HanWu Emperor of Han Dynasty. Since then the administrative construction varied frequently. Until May, 1st , 1950 when the whole island was liberated, it was under the jurisdiction of Guangdong province. In April of 1988, the government of Hainan province was established, as well as the Hainan special economic zone.