Bo'ao (博鳌; Bó​'áo​) is a town on the east coast of Hainan in China. It is administratively part of the county-level city of Qionghai.

Understand

Boao, the seat of the Boao Forum for Asia, has its share of luxury hotels. Tourist facilities are well developed, with heavy overseas Chinese investment.

This article also covers the fishing town of Tanmen (潭门), which is just 10 km north of Bo'ao's downtown area.

Get in

Bo'ao is somewhat over an hour from Haikou and about two hours from Sanya.

Bo'ao airport (BAR ^IATA) opened in 2016 with regular flights to Guangzhou, Chongqing, Guiyang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Kunming.

Get around

Taxi from Qionghai coach station ¥30-40 (negotiate!). Bus number 2 ¥3.

Bike rentals range around ¥30 per hour or hop a motorcycle taxi for around ¥5 or less per trip to nearly anywhere around Bo'ao.

See

• 1 Bo'ao Forum (Permanent Site of the Bo'ao Forum for Asia; 博鳌亚洲论坛永久会址) (from Sanya take the high speed bullet train to Boao station, taxi ¥50 to Boao Town; from Haikou take the bullet train to the Qionghai station, take a shuttle bus into Qionghai and transfer to bus #2, a taxi from the Qionghai train station to Boao will run around ¥40), ☏ +86 898-62691509. The site of an annual meeting of Asian heads of government and business leaders, which is a popular tourist attraction for Chinese tour groups. Of little interest to the average foreign tourist. 
• 2 Yudai Beach (玉带滩), Located on a thin peninsula at the mouth of the Wanquan, Longgun and Jiuqu rivers (Catch a ferry from the Bo'ao Forum Establishment Site). (updated Jan 2018)

An artefact on display at the China (Hainan) Museum of the South China Sea.

• 3 China (Hainan) Museum of the South China Sea (中国(海南)南海博物馆), Museum Road, Tanmen Town (潭门镇博物馆路) (about 9km north of Bo'ao in the fishing port of Tanmen; the easiest way to get here is take bus no. 15 from the Red Detachment of Women statue in Qionghai - the bus will normally stop outside the museum but beware of occasional route variations; alternatively you can catch bus no. 13 from Bo'ao to Tanmen, then walk or get a motorcycle taxi), ☏ +86 898 62605666. 9AM-5PM, no entry after 4PM, closed on Mondays. Hainan's second largest publicly-owned museum. The first exhibition hall focuses on the historical basis for China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, and includes maps and documents that purportedly demonstrate that China has exercised sovereignty over the region for centuries. Another notable exhibition is a collection of artefacts that were recovered from the Huangguangjiao One, a Chinese merchant vessel that sunk near Huangguang Reef during the Song Dynasty. A replica of the ship can be seen on the outside of the building. Free. (updated May 2018)

Do

• Boao Golf & Country Club (on an island of the Wanquan River), ☏ +86 898 62779659, fax: +86 898 62778315, boaogolf@hotmail.com. It is surrounded by mountains, river and ocean. The course is built totally upon the original landscape. The natural plant and surroundings have been kept unchanged. 

Buy

There is a duty-free store at the Bo'ao Forum site.

Eat

Boao has everything from five star dining, ocean front seafood dining to local eateries featuring Chinese cuisine from nearly every province. The main street of Boao is lined with outdoor restaurants and fruit sellers serving until the wee hours of the night.

Boao is surrounded by fields of pineapples. Sample a peeled pineapple on a stick for only ¥1. A tropical island, visitors to Hainan can eat fresh fruit all year round.

• Aozhuang, ☏ +86 898 62777123. One of Boao's best dining experiences is found not in a high-class restaurant but at a local seafood restaurant right on the beach near the town of Boao. The restaurant is an open air restaurant looking east towards the South China Sea. While the food is delicious, with superb local seafood and fresh vegetables, the biggest attraction is the location. To relax on a balmy evening over a cold beer, looking out over the beach and listening to the sound of the surf at evening fall, until all you can see is the lights of the fishing boats out at sea, it does not get much better than this. 

Sleep

• Boao Yudaiwan Hotel (short walk to bus stop). New, big and comfortable. Huge swimming pool, two restaurants. 
• Boao Sofitel Hotel (on the beachfront, on tropical Dongyu Island). The resort features 437 spacious rooms, five restaurants, five bars, a business centre and indoor/outdoor spas. Recreation facilities include a swimming pool, outdoor natural hot springs, a fitness centre, tennis courts and a new world class PGA championship golf course designed by Graham Marsh. The BFA Convention Center provides extensive state-of-the-art conference facilities for up to 2,000 delegates. 

Go next

• Qionghai