Haitang Bay National Coastal Leisure Park

A view of Haitang Bay National Coastal Leisure Park. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

With 22 kilometers of coastline, 14 kilometers of natural inland river systems and eight square kilometers of lagoon wetlands, Haitang Bay is known as "China's National Coast, World-Class Holiday Paradise".

Haitang Bay is located at the southern tip of Hainan province, to the east of the city of Sanya, 28 kilometers away from the urban area. The area is home to many unique tourist attractions and some spectacular natural scenery. It is among the five most famous bays in Sanya, along with Yalong Bay, Dadonghai Bay and Yazhou Bay.

In April 2014, the Hainan provincial government approved moves to start to revise planning for Haitang Bay. According to the results of the revision, the administrative area of Haitang Bay is about 255 square kilometers. The planned area of the Haitang Bay National Coastal Leisure Park is about 108 square kilometers, and its final planned population is about 400,000. The industrial orientation of the park is dominated by coastal tourism, yachts and the medical and health industry, focusing on the development of cultural and sports tourism, duty-free shopping and exhibitions.

The park's planning slogan is: "One Point, One Belt, Three Zones, Six Areas and Five Wedges":

1. One Point refers to Wuzhizhou Island, which is positioned as a tropical island rainforest park;

2. One Belt refers to the Sand Bar belt, which is designed to be the most concentrated zone of high-end hotels in the world;

3. The Three Zones are the south, central and north zones - south from Iron Furnace Port, north of the Coast Road. The central district includes the big and small Longjiangtang and Finger Wetland Park.

4. The Six Areas include Tielu Port area, Linwang area, Longjiang Tang area, Fengtang area, Coconut Island area and Tufu area;

5. The Five Wedges are functional areas surrounded by green spaces. They are major ecological spaces, following the terrain and leading directly to the seashore.

In light of the numerous investment opportunities across the entire natural resources sector, Haitang Bay aims to adopt a flexible approach to investment targets, without placing unnecessary limits on potential returns on its investment. Investment policies are set out below:

1. If only loans from financial institutions are used as the main investment, a 30 percent financial discount shall be granted; the discount period of each project shall not exceed three years, and the total amount shall not exceed 3million yuan ($460,000).

2. Those who have been awarded A-level tourist attractions shall be awarded between 1 and 3 million yuan;

3. A-level tourist attractions with an annual visitor footfall of more than 1 million shall be rewarded according to the standard of 100,000 yuan per 100,000 people, with a maximum of no more than 5 million yuan;

4. Coconut-grade rural tourist spots (districts) are awarded 200,000-300,000 yuan;

5. Those that have been appraised as model projects of poverty alleviation through tourism and model villages of poverty alleviation through tourism at the provincial level shall be awarded 300,000-500,000 yuan.

6. Star-rated tourist hotels shall be awarded between 1 and 4 million yuan;

7. A one-time reward of 150,000 yuan shall be awarded to themed hotels and residential inns, characteristic family hotels and shared accommodation that receive standard recognition.

8. Tourist commodity projects with provincial or national certificates shall be awarded a lump-sum reward of 100,000 yuan.