Making a virtue of isolation: Island province creates a disease-free zone

摘要

On the map of China, Hainan Province sits at the bottom, 16 kilometers off the southern tip of the mainland. It's China's only tropical province, covers 34,000 square kilometers, and has a population of only 8 million. It is also one of China's newestprovinces, carved out from neighboring Guangdong Province in 1988. Referred to as "Land's End." By the Chinese, it lagged behind the rest of China in development. Despite its small population, Hainan had to import pork and poultry from the mainland. "Now this special geographic location is giving Hainan Island a chance to develop its animal husbandry," says Mr Xing Yiqiang, Director of the Animal Husbandry Division of the Hainan Agricultural Department.