lNOJ"3NIZ\19\IlNS3~3HdSilN3H • llOZ ~38lN3J30 "\76 HAWAII, CHINA-STYLE The emerging super­ power has decided the world needs a new Hawaii-and it's just the country to make it happen. A rook inside one senously audacious plan. BY SUSHMA SUBRAMANIAN AND DEBORAH JIAN LEE ON A BALMY MORNING IN HAINAN, After breakfast. we decide to go an island at the southernmost tip of exploring. Our hotel. the Mangrove mainland China. the sun rises over Tree Resort. is located in the city of Yalong Bay, light glittering across the Sanya. Once something of a back­ water. Children. silhouetted against water with only a smattering of the new day, scamper to the sea and resorts. Sanya has become a hotbed laugh as they stick their toes into the of high-end development. In its most waves. Still a bit groggy, we wander exclusive enclave. Yalong Bay-where through our minimalist. Balinese-style international hotel chains like St. Regis. resort. past a pool that snakes among Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton have erected the lush gardens like a river, and take palatial complexes-BMWs and Audis in the view of the tropical coast before zip through swanky hotel driveways us. Fishing boats circle a tiny volcanic while guests in terrycloth robes pad island in the distance. A few steps past boutiques selling the likes of Louis more. and our feet sink into the white Vuitton. Bulgari and Zegna. Pagoda sand. We head for the water. roofs and white towers peep over spiky We get only knee-deep, however. betel nut trees. drooping banyans and before a whistle sounds. It comes tall palms: Hainan's wild beauty tamed from a lifeguard standing far from the into manicured perfection. water's edge, who gestures wildly for Yet Sanya isn't just another us to return to shore. He is dressed in tropical getaway for the stylish and khaki pants and sneakers. but what he well-heeled. It's an emblem. a corner­ lacks in conventional lifeguard attire stone of the Chinese government's he more than makes up for in zeal for audacious plan to completely remake the safety of his charges. After a little Hainan. The effort was unveiled only cat-and-mouse with him, we give up last year. but already the progress is and walk back to the beach. Another astounding. New hotels and condo vacationer overhears us joking about complexes abound. and great swaths the lifeguard and says, chuckling, of the island, from cities to outlying "He's been freaking out all morning." villages, are dotted with cranes and A Beijing-based oil executive from clad in bamboo scaffolding. If all goes Norway, the vacationer has resigned according to plan. by 2020 Hainan will himself to lazing under a thatched­ be unrecognizable. a global destination roof palapa. favored by a growing class of new HEMISP HERESMAGAZ INE .COM · DECEMBER 2011 95 Eastern money, transformed by the force miles of beautiful beaches, but also restric­ Mission Hills are "very much like Dubai's," of a rising superpower's can-do spirit. To tions on swimming, owing in part to the Chu says. "You have megaprojects. You quote the government, Hainan will be fact that the tan-averse Chinese seldom build them and people will go because peo­ nothing less than the "Hawaii of the East." sunbathe or send their kids to swimming ple are curious. It's just like that in China." But first. there's work to be done. lessons, making the idea of a beach vaca­ He expects the total cost of the Mission tion somewhat foreign. Hainan is, as a Hills project to hit around $4.7 billion-and THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME that Hainan, whole, a place in the throes of adolescence. here's the thing: Even he isn't sure it will a Belgium-sized island of 8 million, has ''As far as natural beauty is concerned, work. "If we do all the number crunching, tried to go big. In 1988, Beijing elevated it it's there," says Wendy Wu, founder of New it's not a viable project," he says. China, to province status and declared it a "special York-based tour company Wendy Wu's after all, has a minuscule golf market. economic zone," hoping it would become China. ''As far as its tourism industry, they But Mission Hills Haikou mirrors the an export hub like Shenzhen. Tax breaks have a ways to go, but it will happen. Even larger leap of faith the government and and other incentives failed to launch the Hawaii didn't become Hawaii overnight." investors are taking on Hainan. This hope would-be industrial center; however, that is the driving force behind the island's didn't deter a slew of real estate speculators FOR ALL THE GOVERNMENT'S talk of the construction race to the sky. "There's a from snapping up land and constructing Aloha State, though, Hainan's new iden­ lot of pride in building this project," Chu new buildings in Hainan's major cities, tity remains up for grabs, with each of its says. "It's not ego pride; it's China pride. It's triggering an economic boomlet. Provincial private developments offering a different showcasing the new China to the rest of GOP jumped 41.5 percent in 1992 and 20 vision of what the island should look like. the world." percent in 1993. Then, in 1994. the real estate While most of these are of the Bali/Fiji/ Some, however, scoff at the vision put bubble burst, leaving strips of beachfront Hawaii variety, developer Ken Chu has forth by Chu. We met one expat in Bo'ao, lined with half-finished buildings. After that. Hainan's economy really deteriorated. ~~~///~ The slump seemed destined to last. But the late '9os brought hope, as waves of tourists from Russia and the main­ "THERE'S A LOT OF PRIDE IN BUILDING THIS PROJECT," land began arriving. Word had gotten SAYS ONE DEVELOPER. "IT'S NOT EGO PRIDE; IT'S around that Hainan had all the features CHINA PRIDE. IT'S SHOWCASING THE NEW CHINA of Hawaii-pristine beaches, verdant jungles, volcanic peaks, laid-back island TO THE REST OF THE WORLD." vibe-but was closer and cheaper. China ~ ~ ~ ~ courted more foreigners and relaxed the ~ I visa requirements for citizens of more than • ~ I two dozen countries. About five years ago, another model in mind: Dubai. a lazy seaside town on Hainan's eastern ~ I irl l development again began to soar. Chu-a glossy-haired mid-30s mogul coast, who likened Hainan to a teenage ~ I < Encouraged by the growth, Beijing went whose crisp shirt is unbuttoned Vegas-style girl who "doesn't know she's beautiful just all in last year and announced the Hawaii to show off a glittering chain-hails from the way she is." The woman, who declined z~ I initiative. The government paved miles of the Hong Kong family behind Mission Hills to be named for this article, moved here ~ ~ Hainan's roads, launched advertisements Group, owner of some of China's biggest in 2006 and fell in love with Bo'ao: its ~ ~ throughout China and a marketing cam­ golf courses. The company opened its charming country lanes perfect for bik­ ~ paign in Europe and opened the island's latest site in Haikou, Hainan's capital city, ing, its quaint Buddhist temples and the ~ first high-speed rail, a $3.3 billion project. last year: Mission Hills Haikou. The second nearby indigenous communities where ~ ~ So far, the plan is working: The number largest golf resort in the world, it boasts 12 villagers practice an ancient agrarian way ~ t;; of overnight tourists jumped 11.6 percent courses with more on the way (including of life. She treasures the place, and wor­ to 23 million in the first 11 months of 2010. one designed as mini golf writ large, com­ ries that in its rush to appeal to wealthy ~ compared with the same period the year plete with a replica of Beijing's National tourists, her adopted home could lose its § before. Hainan is booming anew. Stadium and a golf hole in a giant bowl of individuality. When we tell her about all <{ z l' Yet for all its recently acquired jet-set noodles), and 150 hot spring mineral baths the glitz we've seen in Sanya, she shakes u polish, Hainan-which lies on the same inspired by different cultures' bathing ritu­ her head, convinced that decadence is ~ latitude as the Caribbean, making it China's als, allowing visitors to float in salty pools not what Western tourists want. "This ~> only tropical island-is still grappling with reminiscent of the Dead Sea, for instance, is not the Hawaii of the East," she says. ::; ~ the contradictions that come with such or steep in Chinese herbal teas. 'This is China's tropical island. I think it's :1'. 1'5 prodigious growth. There are dozens of Chu's vision for Hainan marries size wrong to say it's the 'Hawaii of.' because u ultraluxe new stores, yet haggling remains with decadence because, he explains, big­ the implication is that it can't stand on its z~ :5 prevalent, even in some hotels. There are ger is always better in China. Projects like own merits." 0 ::> TRADITIONAL VIEWS Clockwise from top left, a gem-encrusted statue of the bodhisattva Kwan-yin at Hainan's Deda Zizai Kwan-yin temple; a Sanya ~ ~ Bay boating scene; carved stones at Tianya Haijiao ("End of the Earth and Corner of the Sea"); a visitor making a wish at Nanshan Temple in Sanya gj 0 ~ gu <{ 96 DECEMBER 2011 • HEM ISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM DURING OUR STAY, we manage to experi­ ence each vision of Hainan.