Bo'ao — Asia's Davos

A fishing village on three rivers

Bo'ao lies where the Wanquan River and two smaller rivers flow into the South China Sea. The rivers form a wide lagoon with small islands, separated from the sea only by a narrow sandbar. As early as the Song era, Tanka lived here, the boat people you met in Xincun. In 1023 they built a temple to the three rivers.

For centuries Bo'ao was an insignificant fishing village hardly anyone knew off the island. People lived from fishing in the lagoon and off the coast. That changed within a few years — because of an idea born in Manila.

An idea from Manila

In September 1998 three retired politicians proposed founding an Asian counterpart to the World Economic Forum in Davos: former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke and former Japanese prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa. There were other regional gatherings already, but none conceived entirely from Asia.

China took up the idea and backed it strongly. The site chosen was not Beijing or Shanghai but the small fishing village of Bo'ao on Hainan. Ramos later said the forum was founded at the right time in the right place.

How a village became a world stage

On 27 February 2001 representatives of 26 states came to Bo'ao and founded the Boao Forum for Asia. President Jiang Zemin attended in person. It was the first international conference organisation headquartered in China. The first annual conference took place in April 2002, with around 1,900 participants from 48 countries and regions.

Since then it has met here every spring, usually at the end of March. The choice of location was a political signal: a province considered backward in China got a world-class address, and Hainan could present itself as the gateway to Southeast Asia. The fishing village became a backdrop with a golf course, hotels and broad avenues.

Dongyu Island

The heart of the forum lies on Dongyu, a 1.8-square-kilometre island in the middle of the estuary. Here stand the conference centre, the forum hotel and the press centre, which from above looks like a gull in flight. About 70 per cent of the island is covered with trees.

On ordinary days electric buses take visitors around the island, past the halls where the big speeches are given, photo walls and manicured gardens. In between are the piers from which the excursion boats leave for Yudai sandbar.

A laboratory for zero emissions

Since 2022 Dongyu has also been a testing ground. The construction ministry and Hainan province converted the existing island into a “zero-emission zone” in three years without demolishing anything: solar roofs, solar glass on the hotel balconies, solar paving on the squares, small flower-shaped wind turbines, electric buses and heat pumps instead of gas boilers. Add a solar park off the island with vegetables growing under its panels.

The island went into operation in March 2024, with around 96 per cent less CO₂ than before according to official figures. The first body in China to certify the area was, of all things, a German one, the German Energy Agency. Since 2025 it's no longer called “near-zero” but a “zero-emission zone”.

To be honest

On an ordinary November day the forum grounds are still mainly an empty conference centre. You see halls, photo walls and green spaces, and the tour is more exhibition than experience.

The real story lies outside the halls: the estuary, Yudai sandbar, the fishing boats and the question of what such a world stage does to a small place. The ticket is worth it mainly because the boat trip to the sandbar is included.

How to approach the visit

It's best to come in the morning and combine the forum grounds with the sandbar. The combined ticket includes the electric bus around the island and the boat to the sandbar and costs around 130 to 140 yuan depending on the seller. If you only want to see the forum, you pay less — but it's hardly worth it.

In spring, around the annual conference, parts of the island and many hotels are closed or very expensive. In November it's quiet. On the way back Lecheng, the medical special zone, is only a few minutes away.