Foreign tourists have fun at Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 16, 2026. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)
The inbound tourism market in Hainan has been heating up steadily since the launch of island-wide special customs operations on Dec. 18 of last year.
According to Haikou General Station of Immigration Inspection, Hainan border inspection authorities handled over 1.654 million entries and exits between Dec. 18, 2025 and June 18, 2026, registering a year-on-year rise of 31.2 percent. Among them, 913,000 were foreigners, rising 36.1 percent year on year.
Inbound passengers wait to go through border procedures at a border inspection station of Haikou Meilan International Airport in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 17, 2026. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)Foreign customers shop at the Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, June 13, 2026. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)A tourist has fun at Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 16, 2026. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)Inbound passengers go through border procedures at a border inspection station of Haikou Meilan International Airport in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 17, 2026. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)A police officer processes entry formalities for an inbound passenger at a border inspection station of Haikou Meilan International Airport in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 17, 2026. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)Police officers process entry formalities for inbound passengers at a border inspection station of Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, June 17, 2026. (Photo by Meng Xushun/Xinhua)Foreign tourists have fun at the Dadonghai scenic area in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, June 13, 2026. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)Foreign tourists visit Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 16, 2026. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)Inbound passengers go through border procedures at a border inspection station of Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, June 17, 2026. (Photo by Meng Xushun/Xinhua)A tourist takes photos at Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 16, 2026. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)Foreign tourists visit the Qilou Old Street in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, May 9, 2026. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)Foreign tourists visit Hainan Tropical Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, June 16, 2026. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)Foreign tourists have fun at the Dadonghai scenic area in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, June 13, 2026. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)Foreign tourists have fun at the Dadonghai scenic area in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, June 13, 2026. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)■
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance,
a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went
back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016,
working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
