Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan launched eight cutting-edge international medical tourism products on Sunday, targeting global visitors and showcasing the island province’s rich natural and touristic resources.

This initiative integrates exclusive features such as precision health check-ups, expert treatments, and traditional Chinese medicine therapies within the pilot zone, aiming to provide top-tier personalized medical tourism services of international standards to a wide overseas consumer base.

Starting from Saturday, over 60 representatives from medical and tourism institutions and businesses from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, as well as the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, were invited by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television, and Sports of Hainan Province for a 4-day visit and research trip in Lecheng and across Hainan province.

Sian Teong Chein, vice-president of Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce, expressed strong optimism about the growth prospects of the Hainan medical tourism market, highlighting the region’s exceptional ecological surroundings, free trade port policy advantages, and diverse array of tourism products and cultural offerings. He emphasized the potential for international medical tourism development in collaboration with the pilot zone.

“This event leverages the advantages of the preferential policies of the Hainan Free Trade Port and the medical policies of the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, further enriching specific measures within the Hainan tourism consumption scene. This move is beneficial for promoting the integrated development of the medical, health, and tourism industries,” said Liu Cheng, deputy director of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province.

The Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, China’s first and only special medical zone, has introduced over 450 types of innovative pharmaceuticals and medical devices from foreign markets yet to be listed in China. With 36 operational medical institutions, Chinese patients can access cutting-edge international therapies in Lecheng without traveling abroad. The pilot zone continues to advance integrated urban-industrial development, focusing on creating multi-level, multi-format medical tourism products to enhance the reception capacity for international medical tourism, according to Jia Ning, director of Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone Administration.

In 2024, Lecheng hosted a total of 413,700 medical tourism visitors throughout the year, marking a 36.76 percent year-on-year increase and solidifying its position as a leading force in Asian medical tourism within the Hainan Free Trade Port.

Exemptions would also apply to value-added tax (VAT) on imports before the island achieves independent customs operations in 2025, according to a statement issued on Thursday by China’s Ministry of Finance and four other ministries.

The initiative will be implemented in the Boao Lecheng Medical Tourism pilot zone in eastern Hainan, which the central government aims to transform into a world-class international medical tourism destination by 2030.

Medical institutions, colleges of medicine and pharmaceutical research institutes in the zone will be able to purchase medicines or medical devices that have been approved by China.

In the pilot zone, drugs and medical devices that have not received central government approval, but have been granted approval by the Hainan government – excluding vaccines – will also be available for purchase tariff free.

China’s most-favoured-nation tax rate on imported medicines ranges from zero to 6 per cent, while the general VAT rate on medicines is 16 per cent.

Beijing has turned the 35,000 sq km (13,514-square mile) island into the world’s largest free-trade port by offering tax incentives and relaxing visa requirements for tourists and business travellers.

The island is nurturing the medical tourism sector in Boao, citizens from 59 countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia, can travel to the island visa free

Medical tourists from less-developed countries have traditionally sought treatment unavailable in their home countries at major medical centres in highly developed countries.

But it has increasingly involved travellers from developed countries seeking lower-cost medical treatments

Some of the world’s most renowned medical tourism destinations include Turkey, Mexico, Thailand and South Korea, which offer a wide array of services, including cosmetic and orthopaedic surgery and fertility treatments.

Boao has been planning to simplify entry and residency procedures for overseas healthcare workers, patients and accompanying persons in the pilot zone from as early as 2019.

Every winter for the last three years, 70-year-old Wang Shuqin and her husband have journeyed from their home in Beijing to Sanya, a seaside resort city in south China’s Hainan Province. They begin their southern sojourn each November and return north as spring arrives the following year.

“My husband has rhinitis during the cold months,” said Wang, explaining the reason behind their annual migration. “Since we started spending our winters there, he has been free from the trouble of a runny nose.”

This practice, where seniors travel south for the winter and return north in the spring, similar to migratory birds, has become popular among retired Chinese seniors and is known as “migratory bird-style” elderly care. Seniors like Wang are adopting this seasonal movement in search of milder weather to improve their health and well-being.

The seasonal migration trend in elderly care

Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs shows that individuals aged 60 and over now constitute 19.8 percent of China’s total population as of the end of 2022. As the trend of an aging population becomes more pronounced in China, the elderly are focusing more on elderly care issues. They are increasingly drawn to destinations that offer beautiful scenery, fresh air, affordable living and a relaxed lifestyle for their retirement years.

Recognizing this trend, the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau announced initiatives in December to promote “winter in the south and summer in the north” elderly care services. These initiatives focus on developing high-quality, cost-effective off-site healthcare communities to broaden the range of residential and home care options available to older adults, ensuring they have access to diverse and comfortable living arrangements throughout the year.

Seniors engage in musical entertainment by the riverside of Wanquan River in Qionghai City, South China’s Hainan Province. /CFP

Panzhihua City in Sichuan Province has a warm climate characterized by minimal temperature fluctuations and abundant sunshine all year round, with an average of about 8 hours of sunshine daily. /CFP

A 31-year-old woman diagnosed with familial early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) received treatment with an innovative medicine at the Hainan Province branch of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital last Saturday, experts announced on Tuesday.

Experts from Ruijin Hospital, who have searched all literature and network media so far, revealed that she is the youngest AD patient in the world receiving such disease-modifying treatment.

The medicine Aducanumab was marketed in the United States in 2021 for Alzheimer’s disease treatment. It was the first AD medicine approved by US Food and Drug Administration since 2003.

The medicine was introduced by Ruijin’s Hainan branch at the end of 2022, since when several patients have received the therapy.

It is given by intravenous infusion once a month, with a 12-month treatment duration.

The Bo’ao area on the southern island province is a special region approved for pioneering trials on new drugs and technologies, which are not approved by the Chinese government.

Aducanumab is a monoclonal IgG1 antibody that binds to amyloid-β (Aβ), reducing amyloid plaques in the brain. Amyloid plaques are one of the main factors causing AD.

AD is a neurodegenerative disease, which usually affects people over 65 years old. About 10 percent of the patients can have early onset of the disease before they are 60, with many familial AD patients.

The woman’s father is also an AD patient, and started to develop symptoms at the age of 38 and died seven years later.

She began to feel a memory decline half a year ago and went to hospital for screening and checks.

“She is a patient with high awareness, which is extremely important for AD prevention and control, as proper medication, rehabilitation and intervention measures can slow down the development of the disease,” said Dr Wang Gang, the woman’s attending neurologist.

“Clinical studies and practices made a breakthrough with drugs like anti-Aβ monoclonal antibodies, which can facilitate Aβ clearance from the brain, potentially reducing the deleterious effects of Aβ and hence slowing the cognitive decline.”

Wang pointed out that his hospital has been actively involved in AD screening, prevention and treatment and promoting the knowledge on AD to raise public awareness.

“Ruijin Hospital has teamed up with the Yuyuan Community Health Center to launch education and screening for the elderly at the risk of AD,” he said.

Through cognitive screening scales, eletroencephalography and risk gene screening, doctors are able to identity people with high risk and have already suffered certain early-stage symptoms.

“We have developed a whole-process management system by community-based rehabilitation and management, transfers between the senior hospital and neighborhoods and hospice care,” Wang noted. “The treatment is able to cover the very early stage to the last stage of the disease.”

Experts say that AD screening should also be included in the regular physical checkup of middle-aged and elderly people for early detection, diagnosis and treatment.

There are about 13 million patients with AD or other types of dementia in China, with an incidence of 924.1 per 100,000 people and mortality of 22.5 per 100,000.

This file photo taken in 2021 shows the energy station of the district cooling system in Haitang Bay of Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province. (Xinhua)

HAIKOU, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — Sanya, a resort city on China’s tropical island of Hainan, has replaced air conditioners with a centralized supply of cold water in several high-end hotels and duty-free shops, raising new prospects for a greener solution to the summer heat in China.

The district cooling system, in which chilled water is produced and distributed by a central source to cool multiple buildings in an area, has become a talking point on China’s internet amid the current heatwave. It has gained attention for its promise of providing cool environments with more efficient energy use.

In Sanya, seven hotels, as well as the Sanya International Duty Free City, in Haitang Bay have started using the service, according to EDF Changfeng (Sanya) Energy Co., Ltd., which runs the city’s district cooling system.

Haitang Bay is home to a cluster of luxury hotels, including Westin, Edition and Fairmont.

The district cooling network in Sanya sends out water at 7 degrees Celsius via a pipe system. District cooling systems enjoy economies of scale and optimized central management, making them much more energy efficient than individual air conditioners.

Launched in 2021, the Sanya system is capable of saving about 28,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing 76,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year when running at full tilt, according to the supplier.

For hotels, the use of district cooling can also reduce bacteria and noise pollution compared to traditional cooling systems, said Liu Guoyang, secretary-general of Hainan’s hotel engineering association.

“More and more hotels in Sanya have become aware of the importance of energy saving and carbon reduction,” Liu said.

Central air conditioning accounts for about 40 percent of the total energy consumption of public buildings, said Bai Shouyue with the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency.

District cooling that features lower energy consumption is therefore significant for the green development of cities like Sanya, where the service industry is growing rapidly along with the number of high-end public buildings, said Bai.

The Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center at the Sun Yat-sen University has achieved a milestone in the field of ophthalmic surgery by completing the world’s first remote, micron-level surgery on rabbits using an independently developed 5G robot.

The surgeries took place on June 23 on rabbits at the center in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, with the surgical team operating the robot from the Hainan Eye Hospital at the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center in Haikou, capital of Hainan province.

The trial was led by professor Lin Haotian’s team, and all 12 rabbits operated on are in stable condition after a month of observation.

According to Lin, who is the director of the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, the breakthrough will help accelerate remote medicine in China, and elevate the country’s medical devices and equipment to world-leading levels. It will also contribute to the development of national medical standards.

Lin said that this achievement has far-reaching implications in addressing the imbalance in the development of ophthalmology and the uneven distribution of topnotch medical resources across the country. In saving time for doctors and patients, reducing economic costs, and improving the efficiency of treatment, telemedicine has the potential to overcome such challenges.

“If everything goes smoothly, 5G remote micron ophthalmic surgery will be available to humans within half a year,” he said.

His team has previously conducted similar surgeries on mice, pigs and other animals.

Huang Kai, a professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Sun Yat-sen University, said the success of the surgeries shows that 5G robots are stable and accurate.

The success of the Guangzhou-Haikou surgery proves the stability and safety of the 5G remote micron-level ophthalmic surgical robot system, opening up promising prospects for its use.

“Ophthalmic surgery requires extreme precision and stability,” said Huang.

His team is working with Lin to develop 5G robots and associated technology for use in surgeries of this kind.

Huang said they will work hard to speed up the implementation and promotion of 5G surgical robots, integrating digital telemedicine, independently innovative surgical robot technology, new digital therapy medical and health service systems, to achieve a superior level of medical treatment in the coming months.

Zhong Xingwu, vice-president of the Hainan Eye Hospital, said the success of the remote surgeries has great significance for the coordinated regional development of ophthalmic medicine.

“Innovative, high-precision ophthalmic technology is expected to play a role in helping alleviate the lack of high-quality medical resources for eye health,” said Zhong.

He added that said he is expecting 5G remote micron-level ophthalmic surgeries to soon be available in a clinical setting, benefiting patients.

The insurance provides inclusive medical fee supplementary medical coverage for one year. The annual premium for Hainan residents is only 29 yuan ($4.16) per person, and the insurance proceeds could be one million yuan.

Gu Gang, Director of the Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone Administration, said that to help Chinese people access highly-priced new and special anti-cancer medicine from abroad Boao Lecheng is giving full play to its favorable policies of special medicine import and has created an innovative mechanism that combines medical and commercial insurance to cover the cost of special medicines as part of medical services.

The insurance, a blockbuster benefit product launched by Boao Lecheng in the first year of operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port, fills the gap of imported medicine insurance in Hainan Province.

To bring real benefit to local people the insurance has no strict restrictions set on the health conditions of the insured person, and no physical examination or health notification is required when participating in the coverage. Insured people will be able to apply for claims when the policy takes effect on October 1.

This product will also be launched simultaneously across China but the premium will be adjusted accordingly in other provinces and cities based on factors such as the age of the insured person.