China creates Hainan special health care zone to tap growing medical tourism market
- China is creating a ‘special health care zone’ in Hainan to capitalise on the growing medical tourism market
- Preferential policies will allow Hainan to import medical devices, technology and drugs that are hard to come by in the mainland
This is the final story in a three-part series examining China’s plan to transform Hainan into an internationally influential ‘free-trade port’, as Beijing faces what it perceives to be an increasingly hostile international environment. You can read the first and second stories in the series here.
From beautiful legs to beating hearts, China plans to tap its vast market for health tourism by transforming tropical Hainan into a destination for cutting-edge medical treatment.
“[Chinese] go to the United States and Japan for major operations, Thailand for infertility treatment, Ukraine for beautification injections and South Korea for plastic surgery,” said Liu Zhefeng, a deputy director of the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone.
“The demand for overseas medical tourism is huge, but totally unnecessary.”
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The medical park, which is also known as Boao Hope City and currently consists of about a dozen hospitals, is one of 11 key zones underpinning President Xi Jinping’s vision to create an internationally influential free-trade hub by the middle of the century.