The Town at the Forum’s River Mouth

A 2019 National Immigration Administration feature describes Boao as an eastern coastal town with a history of fishing and farming. That working-coast setting predates the town’s international profile as the forum’s annual host.

The Boao Forum for Asia was established in 2001, and the first annual meeting took place in Boao in 2002. The National Immigration Administration’s feature says the town became the permanent location of the forum headquarters and that annual meetings have been held there since 2002. A later Hainan government profile describes Qionghai as the forum’s permanent site. This change brought an international calendar to a local place: the conference returns each year, while the town remains connected to the river mouth and the sea around it.

A 2026 provincial report locates the forum complex on Dongyu Island at the mouth of the Wanquan River. The island setting matters because the forum is not described as an abstract brand detached from geography: its buildings occupy a specific river-mouth landscape. Since 2022, the report says, a zero-carbon demonstration zone has been developed on Dongyu Island, using air-circulation and cooling systems and solar energy for lighting.

Boao now carries two timescales. The forum’s founding and annual meetings belong to the last quarter-century; the town’s fishing-and-farming identity predates that international role. The Wanquan River reaches the sea here, while Qionghai’s official profile names Boao among the city’s four coastal ports. These strands should remain distinct: a river, a port, a town and an international organization are not interchangeable. Together, however, they explain why the bay is both a meeting place and part of a larger working coast.