The smallest province in China is Hainan Province, which is about twice the size of Beijing. However, Hainan Province is also the largest province in China.
Hainan has an area of 2.03 million square kilometers plus its territorial waters, 20 percent more than Xinjiang. Hainan was only established as a province in 1988, and the 600 years before the establishment of the province belonged to Guangdong. 600 years ago, it still belonged to Guangxi for 300 years. During the Yuan Dynasty, it even had a history of several decades belonging to Hubei. So for more than a thousand years, Hainan has been in a state of adrift.
Hainan's role for the imperial court is basically a good place to make mistakes, for example, Su Dongpo was exiled to Hainan. Until the Qing Dynasty, someone began to see the importance of Hainan, and this person was Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang.
In 1887, he proposed the establishment of a province in Hainan, however, the imperial court did not agree to this, and only agreed to establish a province in Taiwan. It was at that time that Taiwan was established as a province, and Hainan was delayed for 100 years.
In 1988, ten years after the reform and opening up, Hainan finally broke away from Guangdong and established itself as a province. This is mainly because Hainan has many high-quality natural ports, which are very suitable for reform and opening up, foreign investment, and attracting foreign investment. After Hainan became an independent province, it became the youngest province in New China and the only provincial-level special economic zone in China.