The third annual Hainan Rendez-Vous, China’s leading superyacht and business jet show, will be held on the 5th-8th of April 2012.

The show is becoming a landmark event for China’s affluent and influential decision makers providing them with a platform for top level communication and collaboration.

The show’s fantastic turnout is due in part to the fact that Hainan is becoming a key yachting hub for China.

Simpson Marine, Asia’s largest yacht brokerage company, has opened a flagship office at the Serenity Coast Marina in Sanya, Hainan.

“Simpson Marine is ready to serve the Chinese market, and specifically its southern part, which is transforming itself into the yachting hub of China.”

On top of the existing 8 marinas in operation, over 12 new marina projects have been identified on the southern coast of China and Hainan. The idea of a Chinese Riviera stretching from Xiamen to Sanya has never been so relevant.

Casino giant Caesar’s Entertainment has announced the start of construction on its first non-casino luxury resort, in the Chinese holiday destination of Hainan.

The Caesars Palace Longmu Bay will be a 5-star resort with 1,000 rooms, a Las Vegas-style attraction which will set a ‘global luxury standard’ in China.

The first phase of the project is expected to cover a total of five square kilometers, Caesars confirmed September 27, with a planned opening date of 2014.

China seems to be caught in a conundrum. While the country has over the past decade actively encouraged the rapid rise of its middle class, it now seems quite unsure of how to handle the trappings that go with their newfound wealth.

First the hammer came down on billboards advertising luxury brands — from March they were banned in Beijing and Shanghai, as well more regional cities such as Chongqing, for promoting a lifestyle that was both “unhealthy” and “foreign.”

And now the authorities have again turned their attention to the pastime that was at one stage banned for being too “bourgeois” — golf.

The popular Chinese holiday destination of Sanya is set to boast the world’s largest duty free complex, according to reports.

Sanya, on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea, is the southernmost city in China and a booming holiday destination for Chinese tourists, boasting an ever-growing number of resorts aimed at both Chinese and international tourists.

Now, it will also be home to the world’s largest duty free offering, some 350,000 square meters of duty-free retail space according to the Moodie Report.

The marketing spin has been that Hainan Island is the “Hawaii of China” but up until the past 12 months the reality has not quite matched the hype.

Times, though, are fast changing on China’s southernmost territory with the local government this year adding duty-free shopping and opening up its pristine waters to the international yachting community in an effort to lure more tourists to the island.

Hainan, which boasts a tropical climate, is also undergoing a resort-building boom with the Hilton and Marriott chains already this year becoming the latest to develop sites on the island which only saw its first “international-style” resort built in 1999.