Administratively, Haikou is a prefecture-level city, comprising four districts, and covering 2,280 square kilometres (880 sq mi).

During the Chinese Civil War, Haikou was one of the last Nationalist strongholds to be taken by the Communists — with the Battle of Hainan Island in 1950.

[citation needed] Haikou originally served as the port for Qiongshan, the ancient administrative capital of Hainan island, located some 5 km (3.1 mi) inland to the south east.

When Qiongshan was opened to foreign trade under the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, Haikou started to rival the old administrative city.

Since 1949, Haikou has maintained its position as Hainan's main port, handling more than half of the island's total trade.

In 1988, Haikou was made a prefecture-level city as well as the capital of the newly created Hainan Province.

The streets used to be divided into different areas selling Chinese and western medicine, for silk and bespoke clothes, one for fresh fish and meat, and others for the sale of incense, candles, paper, ink, and other goods.

[citation needed] Haikou is situated on the north coast of Hainan Island, by Haikou Bay, facing the Leizhou Peninsula across the Qiongzhou Strait that stretches west from Beibu Bay near Vietnam to the James Shoal bordering the South China Sea to the west.

From east to west the remaining three road connections are provided by the Renmin, Heping and Xinbu Bridges.

April to October is the active period for tropical storms and typhoons, most of which occur between August and September.

As of 2018[update], Haikou has the second best air quality among major cities nationally, preceded only by Lhasa, Tibet.

The initiative has increased the size of Haikou's green spaces to 2,000 hectares, with trees lining 40 percent of its roads.

During 2015 and 2016, large-scale city improvements have taken place as part of a province-wide initiative called "double create" (双创).

It is focused on traffic and commerce, but has also improved the overall appearance of the city, tackling air pollution from industry emissions, aiming to ensure the safety of drinking water sources, improving public security in such places as hospitals, schools, malls, and visitor attractions.

There are several distinct neighborhoods within the city, including: Guomao is a relatively affluent area located on the coast between Longquan Road to the east running west for more than one kilometre.

The west part of this area has experienced substantial development since about 2007, and now contains dozens of newly built high-rise residential apartment buildings.

This historical area is located on the south side of the Haidian River, at the northern part of mainland Haikou.

Much of the area comprises arcade style, dilapidated buildings with European fusion-type architectural facades with Indian and Arabic influences.

It appears similar to a typical student ghetto, containing many small, inexpensive food stands and restaurants.

[citation needed] There is a small amount of industry, including canning, textiles, rice hulling, and light engineering.

The "International Tourism and Central Business District" is under construction on the west part of Guoxing Avenue.

Traffic on main streets, once light, is now similar to other major cities, with rush hour problems that have prompted the city to expand several main roads and build a new elevated road from the west end of Guoxing Avenue to new developments west of Holiday Beach.

Physical barriers were installed on many of the main two-way streets throughout the city in order to separate opposing lanes.

The Haikou Public Bicycle System has installed a number of new, more modern bikes with tires that cannot be punctured.

In January 2011, Haikou was selected to be the first test site for an experiment allowing private helicopter flight in China.

[36] Three main highways connect Haikou to other parts of Hainan, running east, west, and south through the middle of the province.

Haikou City Stadium, is the main venue for sports events, and is located at the southeast corner of Evergreen Park.

Older cultural sites include the now-restored buildings of the Bo'ai Road area, the tomb of Hai Rui, Xiuying Fort in the Guomao area, the Temple of the Five Lords, the cemetery for the martyrs of Hainan's Battle of the Liberation, and the former temple Haikou Yazhou Gu Cheng.

The city earned approximately three billion yuan (361 million US dollars) from the tourism industry during that period, up 11 percent from the previous year.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.