Exciting Hainan: health, joy and vitality ⑥
Sweeping deregulation adds meditation and arts wellness
Green Cross, Daewoong Pharma, GE, Boston Scientific among global suppliers
43 hospitals spanning Eastern and Western medicine; 100% foreign ownership allowed
'Came in a wheelchair, walked out' — visitor testimonials draw attention
The Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan — often called the "Hawaii of the East" — is an ambitiously developed cluster bringing together traditional Chinese medicine, Korean medicine, Western medicine, medical devices, therapy, beauty and wellness under one roof.
Since its first phase opened in 2014, the zone has undergone continuous upgrades, evolving into a fully integrated medical-and-tourism healing destination.
Particularly notable is the zone's status as a kind of medical and wellness free-trade area: patients can receive prescriptions for, or purchase, drugs and health supplements that have won approval in multiple credible countries and gained global popularity — even if those products have not been cleared by Chinese national authorities. Global pharmaceuticals and medical devices can be used here through a streamlined process under Hainan provincial authorities, bypassing the central government's approval requirements.
The zone operates as a national-level special district built on the "pilot-first" principle — experiment and implement before regulating.
Research hospitals, treatment hospitals, traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, world-class pharmaceutical companies, beauty therapy providers and wellness centers are all concentrated in one place.
Beyond general medical care across numerous specialties, the zone concentrates everything related to healthy and beautiful living — next-generation chest CT imaging, anti-aging treatments, aesthetic medicine and fat-reduction procedures.
Many treatment options, at roughly half the cost of Korea or less
Visitors can choose from the world's most popular pharmaceuticals and therapies tailored to their constitution, generally at one-third to one-half the cost of equivalent care in Korea.
For Korean and other international visitors, the zone is best understood not as a disease-treatment center within China, but as a global medical cluster that has assembled the world's finest pharmaceuticals and therapies in one place.
Korean companies present as tenants or suppliers include Green Cross, Daewoong Pharma and Cheong Kwan Jang, while global players such as Pfizer, GE HealthCare, Bausch + Lomb, Boston Scientific and Violette have product lines or research teams operating on site.
The cluster operates 43 hospitals and also houses academic and research facilities for medical students from the prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
Compared with the Texas Medical Center in the inland desert of the United States or the medical complex in Afyon in central Turkey, Boao Lecheng is broader in the range of global medical schools and companies it has attracted, and adds therapy, preventive medicine, wellness and aesthetics to the mix. Its integration with the surrounding natural landscape surpasses Texas and rivals Afyon — with the added advantage that Boao Lecheng, unlike either of those cities, sits close to the sea.
Even drugs not yet approved by China's pharmaceutical authorities are expected to find a smoother path through the notoriously demanding Chinese approval process once they demonstrate superior efficacy on patients within this health free-trade zone.
Well-known drugs and health supplements all available
Research and development collaboration is also in full swing here. One recent example: a technology to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — a condition previously managed only through long-term hospitalization aimed at slowing its progression — was developed through international cooperation, using a medical device roughly the size of a small piece of chalk that is inserted into the body.
The health supplement section stocks only products whose efficacy has been verified in countries with established reputations for quality. Items from China, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland and Canada are particularly prominent.
Korean vitamins, antioxidants, arfoten, red ginseng sticks, pomegranate collagen, omega-3 and coenzyme-series products are displayed at the front of the health supplement section, alongside Japan's XOZ and international brands including Zaley, Schiff and the gel-candy format supplement NYO3.
At the heart of the zone's medical tourism offering is the Boao Yiling Life Health Management Center, which has received China's national high-tech enterprise certification three times since 2017 and has been selected for seven consecutive years as an official hospitality and service support institution for the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.
The center holds the highest-level accreditation from the American Association of Blood Banks and is qualified to conduct clinical trials for pharmaceuticals and medical devices under Good Clinical Practice standards.
Specialized medical facilities within the center include an international medical imaging and diagnostics center, a life health pre-screening center, a radiation diagnostics center, a precision medicine research center, a life health management science research center, a cardiovascular and metabolic medicine center, a life health management center, a life aesthetics management center and a mind-body medicine health management center.
Ten health management fields, rich wellness programs guided by a spirit of healing
Core services span 10 health management fields — precision diagnostics, prevention, chronic disease management, health promotion, internal and surgical medicine, oncology treatment and dental care — as well as domestic and international medical referral and transfer services, personal image management, plastic surgery and anti-aging services, and women's cancer screening and prevention. Wellness programming includes meditation, yoga and inner well-being cultivation; healing arts such as gayageum, baduk, calligraphy, painting, tea ceremony, perfume blending and flower arrangement; art appreciation; cultural experiences including coffee and wine; and customized services tailored to individual needs.
The building is organized across multiple floors: the first floor houses a traditional Chinese medicine hospital, the second a biopharmaceutical section, the third research and development laboratories, the fourth various treatment rooms, floors five through ten five-star resort-style guest rooms, and the eleventh an infinity pool.
The lawn courtyard and corridor lounge areas of the mixed-use residential care apartments are surrounded by trees, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a healing center set within nature.
Among the psychological and healing programs on offer are gayageum therapy, calligraphy and painting. Participants focus intently — finding the precise notes and resonance of the stringed gayageum, or applying just the right pressure with a brush to complete a piece of writing or a painting — as a way of calming and centering the mind.
At Guoyitang, the traditional Chinese medicine hospital within the zone, a wooden plaque hangs prominently bearing the spirit of "benevolent medicine" — an Eastern equivalent of the Hippocratic oath, calling on practitioners to treat patients with sincerity, virtue and wholehearted dedication.
Behind the statue of Sun Simiao — revered as the "king of medicine" (581–682) — an inscription reads like a Chinese version of the Hippocratic oath.
"A great physician is one who, through effective treatment, promotes harmony among humanity. One who sets one's will without greed or desire, and first vows to arouse great compassion and mercy to relieve the suffering of all souls. If someone comes seeking help in illness or disaster, make no distinction between the noble and the humble. Do not shrink from sacrifice. Even in deep sorrow, do not avoid danger. Through beautiful scenery, night, cold, heat, hunger, thirst and fatigue — strive wholeheartedly to save, and bring benefit to the people."
Along the corridor walls of Guoyitang, medical illustrations based on the physical structure of Mongolian people are displayed, accompanied by explanations of the scientific analyses drawn from them.
Insurance coverage available if anything goes wrong
The zone also offers various therapies conducted inside semicylindrical enclosures built from health-promoting woods such as pine and cypress, shaped to resemble MRI machines, along with dedicated spaces for physical therapy and a therapeutic restaurant designed to support dietary treatment programs.
Residential care stays of one week, one month or three months are available. Staff say it is not uncommon for visitors who arrived in wheelchairs to leave walking with only a cane — or walking unaided.
The sight calls to mind the great wall of crutches and canes at Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Canada — a vast display of items left behind by patients who recovered through the combined healing ministry of therapeutic treatment and the laying on of hands by a medical priest.
Testimonials from international visitors who say they experienced real results at the Yiling Hospital within the Boao Lecheng zone continue to pour in.
The Boao Lecheng Pilot Zone offers a wide range of benefits to medical tourists and global players in the pharmaceutical sector. Long-stay patients combining residential care with treatment may bring up to a three-month supply of medications from their home country — including drugs not approved by Chinese authorities — for use during their stay. Insurance coverage is provided if any problems arise during treatment or recovery.
For health supplements, there are virtually no restrictions on what can be distributed within the zone, as long as the product enjoys global credibility.
Since 2024, cell therapy for cancer patients has also been permitted within the zone, and a 15 percent tariff exemption on pharmaceuticals has been introduced.
A zone official said the requirement for foreign companies to form joint ventures when investing in the Boao Lecheng Pilot Zone has been abolished, and wholly foreign-owned companies are now permitted to establish legal entities within Hainan.
abc@heraldcorp.com
![Popular mukbang influencer, 24, dies suddenly: 'ate 70 eggs at a time' [China Pick]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/09/08/news-p.v1.20260908.581b7189494849c3a9f1ade47eb6596d_T1.jpg?type=h&h=120)
