worth reading Island Paradise

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post checked in with a fun, informative feature on Hainan Island and its increasingly controversial transformation into “the Hawaii of the East.”

The island, says the newspaper, has experienced “a 12-month frenzy of construction -- lavish resorts, seaside villas, spas, and a helicopter landing pad, still being built, for well-heeled visitors with no time to waste.”

And yes indeed, golf construction has been part of the frenzy. The Post says that 26 courses are currently operating, 70 more are under construction, and “as many as 300” could eventually be built.

The paper also offers an interesting factoid about Mission Hills Haikou, which it says “will boast 10 courses and 162 holes.” Sounds like eight 18-hole tracks and a pair of nines.

But is there a dark side to the golf development, or at least a dirty little secret?

“No golf course has actually earned money,” a fellow named Liu Futang tells the paper. “Few of them have people coming to play.”

I don't know how authoritative Futang is -- he's described as “a former chief of Hainan's Forest Fire Prevention Bureau” -- but if what he says is true, you've got to wonder how many of those 300 planned courses will actually come out of the ground.

Then again, the health of the golf business may be the least of Hainan Island's potential troubles.

“The dizzying pace of construction,” says the Post, “has forced thousands of indigenous farmers off their land, driven property prices up tenfold and higher, and has many residents asking the question: How much development is too much?”