china-10-hainan_v1_m56577569830510977.pdfVIP

© Lonely Planet Publications 620 l o n e l y p l a n e t . c o m H ǍI N Á N • • H i s t o r y 621 History fined to their small communities on the coast Until the economic boom of the last 20 years, it was a strategy that seemed to work. Indeed, Hǎinán 海南 Hǎinán had been a backwater of the Chinese groups of Li living as hunter-gatherers were empire since the first Han settlements ap- found in the mountainous interior of Hǎinán peared on the coast almost 2000 years ago. as recently as the 1930s. Largely ignored by a series of dynasties, This lack of exploration comes as little