Haikou Travel Guide

Haikou Overview, China

Haikou is the capital of the Hainan Province, People’s Republic of China, and is situated over the Qiongzhou Strait’s southern bank, facing the Lei Zhou Peninsula. Built over the coast mound, this is actually the largest city of Hainan Province. Haikou City has absolutely enthralling scenery, a very pleasant climate along with luxuriant vegetation. As it is a very ancient city, some of the most spectacular tourist sites and ancient ruins include the Wugong Temple, Qiongtai Academy of Classical Learning, Qiujun Tomb and Hairui Tomb. It has electronics, textiles and tropical crop processing as the very mainstays of light industry. It is basically a sea-port city and a foreign-trade city with very advanced communications systems and an entire range of equipments.

Geography of Haikou

Haikou has an area of 2,304.84 square kilometers. It borders the South China Sea facing Vietnam towards its west across the Beibu Bay. The Nandu River separates a part of the city, Haidian island district from the main land.

Climate of Haikou

Haikou city lies on the Torrid Zone’s northern part and is a part of monsoon-tropical zone. So, from April to October, there is an active period of typhoons and tropical storms here. The months of May till October are the rainy months and it pours the most in September. The main temperature annually is 23.6 degrees C while the main annual rainfall is 1,690 mm.

Economy of Haikou

The per capita GDP of Haikou in the year 2007 was $ 3,049 USD and it ranked at number 43 in all the 650 cities of China. Haikou city exports amazing quantities of livestock and agricultural produce all over the world. In fact, there are other industries that flourish well like canning, rice hulling, light engineering and textiles.

Festivals of Haikou

Apart from various national festivals like the National Day, the International Labor Day, Spring Festival and others, Haikou celebrates a lot of the local festivals. The most popular ones are the Hainan International Coconut Festival in late March/ early April, the Huanhua Festival or the Flower Exchanging Festival on 15 January as per their Chinese Lunar Calendar and the Junpo Festival.

Haikou is also known much for the great temples, the Sino- Portuguese architecture, the great sandy beaches and various ancient ruins. Regular flights can be easily found to Haikou from all International and domestic airports. To add, the ferry service can also be availed from the two harbors.