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        (1)外文名称: Hainan Province
       (2)中文名称: 海南省
       (3)内容: Hainan Province

Hainan Island is the second-largest island in China, after Taiwan. The island faces the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province across the Qiongzhou Straits. It had a population of seven million by the end of 1994, among whom are some ethnic groups, including the Li, Miao and Hui.

Its topography is low on four sides and high in the center from which radiate the island's rivers. 20 percent of the island is mountainous,15 percent hilly and 65 percent is plain and tableland. Two major ports, Haikou and Yulin, are along its 1,440-km coastline.

Hainan Province, known as Qiongzhou in ancient times, has long been under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province. But in May 1984, the decision was approved to establish the Hainan Administrative District on the island at the Second Session of the Sixth National People's Congress. Under the district's jurisdiction are also the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands in the South China Sea. The district governing body is the Hainan Administrative District's Government under the Guangdong Provincial People's Government. In August 1987, the State Council made a proposal to establish Hainan as a province. In 1988, Hainan Island became China's 30th province and its largest economic zone.

The Hainan Province administers three cities, 16 counties, as well as the islands and reefs of the Xisha Islands, Nansha Islands and Zhongsha Islands and seawaters around them.

The province has an area of 34,000 sq km, an average temperature between 22 and 26 degrees centigrade and an annual rainfall of 1,600 to 2,000 millimeters. Hainan has more than 4,000 species of plants, accounting for 15 percent of the country's total, and 600 of them are native to the island. It is estimated that 344 species of birds and 77 kinds of animals dwell in Hainan, of which gibbons, pangoins, rhesus monkeys and civet cats have been put under state protection. The province also boasts 50 types of minerals.