"The growth potential of Sanya and the entire island of Hainan is tremendous," said the resort's managing director Heiko Schreiner.

Biggest test ground of reform

As the smallest province but biggest SEZ, Hainan is an ideal test ground of China's reform and opening-up.

In the early 1990s, it boasted China's first listed private company, and Yangpu Economic Development Zone, the first development zone approved for lease to foreign investors by the Chinese government.

It is also the only province in the country without toll stations on its highways, due to a fee-to-tax reform in 1994.

Since 2001, the town of Boao has become the permanent site of the Annual Conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, the first permanent site for an international conference in China. In 2005, Hainan was the first province to remove the centuries-old agricultural tax.

The national strategy of building Hainan into an international tourist destination has put it on the fast track since 2010, attracting investment and infrastructure, such as high-speed railways, hotels, high-end commercial real estate and tourism facilities.

"Aiming for China's first free trade port, Hainan will start the country's new round of reform in larger scale and in more extensive areas," said Fu Xuanchao, head of the provincial development and reform commission.

With the rising flow of people, goods and capital due to the tax-free policies brought by the free trade zone and port, Hainan is expected to be a pivotal point linking the Chinese mainland with southeast Asian countries, said Lin Jian, chairman of Hainan Ganghang Holding Limited Company, a local shipping and logistics enterprise.

"I believe Hainan will be a highly international and modernized island in another 30 years," said Chi, who served as head of the provincial policy research office in his early years in Hainan, who later became a scholar.