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HainanInc

Prefecture-level city (地级市)

Sanya

Hainan's southern capital — internationally known for tourism, and increasingly consequential for seed science and deep-sea technology.

三亚市 · Part of Greater Sanya economic circle

Sanya is the city most foreigners have heard of, and the one they most consistently misread. Its tourism and duty-free retail economy is real and large, but the investment story that has developed alongside it is scientific: Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City, in the west of the city, houses a southern crop-breeding base, a deep-sea technology cluster, a university town and a global germplasm resource transfer facility.

That combination — a resort economy and a national research programme in the same municipality — is what makes Sanya's district geography unusually important. Haitang Bay is duty-free retail and resorts; Jiyang is the central business district and the airport approach; Yazhou is the science city. They are not interchangeable.

Sanya's 2026 investment programme reflects both halves, weighting tourism alongside seed industry and deep-sea research.

At a glance

Administrative tier
Prefecture-level city (地级市)
Role
Southern Hainan's principal city
Economic circle
Greater Sanya economic circle
Districts
Four — Haitang, Jiyang, Tianya, Yazhou
Principal gateway
Sanya Phoenix International Airport (SYX)

What it is being built for

Seed industry and tropical agriculture science

Crop breeding and germplasm research at the Yazhou Bay southern breeding base — a national programme, not a local one.

Deep-sea technology

Marine research, deep-sea equipment and the associated engineering supply chain, clustered at Yazhou Bay.

Tourism, hospitality and duty-free retail

Resort development, cruise and yacht business, and the offshore duty-free retail concentrated at Haitang Bay.

Modern services

Financial, commercial and professional services in the Sanya Central Business District.

Free Trade Port zones located here

  • Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (三亚崖州湾科技城)

    Southern crop breeding, deep-sea technology, a university town, Nanshan Port and a global germplasm resource transfer base.

  • Sanya Central Business District (三亚中央商务区)

    Modern services, finance and commerce.

Getting things and people in and out

Air
Sanya Phoenix International Airport (SYX)
Sea
Sanya Port; Nanshan Port at Yazhou Bay
Rail
Hainan ring high-speed railway — a continuous loop of more than 600 km around the island

How the incentives apply here

  • Two designated key parks sit within the city, each with its own supporting policy alongside the island-wide Free Trade Port incentives.
  • Agricultural science, marine technology and tourism activities all appear in the encouraged-industries catalogue governing the 15% corporate income tax rate — but the ≥60% main-business-income and substantive-operation tests apply in the ordinary way.
  • Sanya is a focus of the individual income tax concession for qualifying high-end and in-demand talent, given the research institutions concentrated at Yazhou Bay.

Who this place suits

  • Agricultural science, plant breeding and germplasm businesses
  • Marine and deep-sea technology, equipment and engineering
  • Hospitality, resort and travel-sector investors
  • Research-led businesses whose staff qualify for the talent tax concession

Districts

Sanya is divided into 4 districts (市辖区). Which one an operation sits in decides its neighbours, its infrastructure and, where a key park is involved, the policy framework it can register under.

District (市辖区)

Haitang海棠区

Sanya's resort and duty-free retail district.

Haitang Bay occupies Sanya's eastern coast and is the centre of Hainan's offshore duty-free retail industry, alongside a dense concentration of international resort hotels.

For investors, the district is principally a hospitality, retail and consumer-services proposition rather than an industrial or technological one.

At a glance

Administrative tier
District (市辖区)
Parent city
Sanya
Role
Duty-free retail and resort hospitality

What it is being built for

Duty-free and consumer retail

Offshore duty-free retail and the brands, logistics and services around it.

Resort hospitality

Hotel, resort and destination leisure development.

Free Trade Port zones located here

No Free Trade Port key park is designated in this division. Businesses here rely on the island-wide regime rather than a zone-specific one — which is a real difference, not a formality.

Getting things and people in and out

Air
Sanya Phoenix International Airport, in neighbouring Jiyang district
Rail
Hainan ring high-speed railway — a continuous loop of more than 600 km around the island

How the incentives apply here

  • Island-wide Free Trade Port incentives apply. Offshore duty-free retail operates under its own separate policy regime, distinct from the island-wide zero-tariff rules for imported goods.

Who this place suits

  • Consumer brands entering the Chinese travel-retail market
  • Hospitality and resort operators

District (市辖区)

Jiyang吉阳区

Sanya's central business district and airport approach.

Jiyang contains Sanya's central business district and sits alongside Phoenix International Airport, making it the district where the city's commercial, financial and professional activity concentrates.

It is also home to much of Sanya's cruise and yacht economy, and to the residential districts where relocating executives and their families most often settle.

At a glance

Administrative tier
District (市辖区)
Parent city
Sanya
Role
Central business district; cruise and yacht economy

What it is being built for

Modern services

Finance, commerce and professional services in the Sanya Central Business District.

Cruise, yacht and marine leisure

Marina operation, yacht services and cruise-linked business.

Free Trade Port zones located here

  • Sanya Central Business District (三亚中央商务区)

    Modern services, finance and commerce.

Getting things and people in and out

Air
Sanya Phoenix International Airport (SYX)
Sea
Sanya Port — cruise and passenger terminals
Rail
Hainan ring high-speed railway — a continuous loop of more than 600 km around the island

How the incentives apply here

  • The Sanya Central Business District is a designated key park with its own supporting policy alongside the island-wide incentives.

Who this place suits

  • Professional and financial services in southern Hainan
  • Cruise, yacht and marine leisure businesses
  • Executives relocating to southern Hainan

District (市辖区)

Tianya天涯区

Sanya's established urban core, west of the city centre.

Tianya covers Sanya's older urban area and the coastline west of the centre, including some of the city's longest-established tourism assets and its principal working port area.

It is a mixed urban district rather than a designated industrial or technological one, and functions largely as the residential and service base for the city.

At a glance

Administrative tier
District (市辖区)
Parent city
Sanya
Role
Established urban core and port area

What it is being built for

Tourism and urban services

Hospitality, retail and the consumer services supporting the wider city.

Port-related activity

Working port and marine services in the western part of the city.

Free Trade Port zones located here

No Free Trade Port key park is designated in this division. Businesses here rely on the island-wide regime rather than a zone-specific one — which is a real difference, not a formality.

Getting things and people in and out

Sea
Sanya Port
Air
Sanya Phoenix International Airport, in neighbouring Jiyang district
Rail
Hainan ring high-speed railway — a continuous loop of more than 600 km around the island

How the incentives apply here

  • Island-wide Free Trade Port incentives apply; there is no district-specific layer.

Who this place suits

  • Consumer-facing and service businesses serving the Sanya market
  • Operations wanting an established urban location rather than a new-build zone

District (市辖区)

Yazhou崖州区

Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City — seed breeding, deep-sea research, and the most investment-relevant district in southern Hainan.

Yazhou is where southern Hainan's scientific economy actually sits, and it is invisible to anyone looking only at city-level information. Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City brings together a southern crop-breeding base, a deep-sea technology cluster, a university town, Nanshan Port and a global germplasm resource transfer base.

The southern breeding programme takes advantage of Hainan's tropical conditions to run additional crop generations each year — a national agricultural research function rather than a local industry, which is why it attracts institutional partners and state investment on a scale the district's size would not otherwise suggest.

The deep-sea cluster is the marine equivalent: research vessels, subsea equipment and the engineering supply chain that supports them, with Nanshan Port alongside.

At a glance

Administrative tier
District (市辖区)
Parent city
Sanya
Role
Science and technology city — seed breeding and deep-sea research

What it is being built for

Seed industry and crop breeding

Plant breeding, germplasm research and agricultural biotechnology at the southern breeding base.

Deep-sea technology

Marine research, subsea equipment, and the engineering and services supply chain around Nanshan Port.

Research and higher education

University and institutional research presence, and the commercial services that follow it.

Free Trade Port zones located here

  • Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (三亚崖州湾科技城)

    Southern crop breeding, deep-sea technology, university town, Nanshan Port, global germplasm resource transfer base.

Getting things and people in and out

Sea
Nanshan Port
Air
Sanya Phoenix International Airport
Rail
Hainan ring high-speed railway — a continuous loop of more than 600 km around the island

How the incentives apply here

  • Yazhou Bay is a designated key park with delegated administrative powers and its own industry-specific supporting policy.
  • This is one of the clearest cases on the island where the individual income tax concession for high-end and in-demand talent is material, given the research staffing model.

Who this place suits

  • Agricultural biotechnology, seed and germplasm businesses
  • Marine, subsea and deep-sea engineering
  • Research-intensive operations recruiting international scientific staff

Last reviewed September 2026. This page is general information about the Hainan Free Trade Port, not legal, tax or investment advice. Eligibility for every incentive described here turns on facts specific to your entity, your industry classification and your substance in Hainan. Nothing on this page should be relied on without advice on your own position.

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