The office buildings in downtown haikou , the provincial capital -- evidence of a real-estate boom and bust in the early 1990s -- now are dwarfed by new luxury apartment buildings and resorts .
This northern section of the mission hills land is less than 30 minutes by car from downtown haikou and just east of a 108sq km national geological park built around the crater of an extinct volcano .
Despite its proximity to the mainland haikou , hainan 's capital , lies just 30km from the southern tip of guangdong province for centuries it had been characterised as a typhoon-prone outpost inhabited by mysterious natives , ruthless pirates , banished criminals and exiled officials .