In 631, the Tang government created Qiong Prefecture (Qiongzhou) in northeastern Hainan. This formal administration helped link Hainan’s coastal communities to wider state systems of taxation, shipping oversight, and regional trade. It also set a stable base for ports and ferry routes across the Qiongzhou Strait and into the Beibu Gulf.
By the Han–Tang era, Hepu (in today’s Beihai area, Guangxi) was recognized as an important political and trade center connected to maritime routes in the Beibu Gulf. Its role as a coastal gateway helped move goods and people between South China and Southeast Asia. This anchored the Beibu Gulf as a working part of longer-distance “Maritime Silk Road” networks.
Between 742 and 758, Qiong Prefecture was recorded under the name Qiongshan Commandery. Such renaming reflects how the Tang state periodically reorganized or re-labeled local administration while keeping the region integrated with mainland governance. These administrative changes mattered because they affected how coastal settlements were supplied, defended, and supervised.
During the Song period, China expanded seaborne trade and built stronger systems to manage it, including policies and offices that monitored shipping and collected revenue. This broader shift increased the importance of coastal hubs and feeder routes that connected smaller ports to major entrepôts (large trading ports). For Hainan and the Beibu Gulf, it meant more regular movement of cargo and travelers through regional port cities.
In the Song period, Qiongshan county operated under Qiongzhou prefecture, keeping Hainan’s northeast coast tied to mainland administration. This continuity supported the island’s role as both an internal frontier and a maritime crossroads. Over time, the port area that would later be associated with Haikou served as an access point between inland administration and coastal shipping.
In 1087, the Song state established a Maritime Trade Office (Shibosi) at Quanzhou to manage overseas commerce. Although Quanzhou is outside the Beibu Gulf–Hainan region, it shaped the larger system that regional networks fed into, including routes moving goods along China’s southern coast. The office’s creation shows how the state increasingly organized maritime trade as a major economic activity.
In 1329, the Yuan dynasty ended Qiong Prefecture as an administrative unit and replaced it with a different form of local governance. This marked a major institutional shift in how the state managed Hainan. Such changes could reshape how ports were supplied and controlled, affecting the island’s links to mainland trade and military transport.
In 1371, the Ming founder Hongwu launched maritime prohibitions (haijin) that restricted private overseas trade and pushed legal foreign commerce into state-controlled channels such as tribute missions. For coastal networks around the Beibu Gulf and Hainan, this policy changed incentives and enforcement, often increasing smuggling pressures while limiting open private shipping. The result was a more tightly controlled, politically sensitive maritime environment.
From 1405 to 1433, the Ming court sponsored large-scale voyages associated with Zheng He, showing the state’s ability to project power and manage long-distance seafaring. Even when fleets did not center on the Beibu Gulf, they relied on a broader south-coast maritime system of shipbuilding, provisioning, and coastal navigation. After the last voyage in 1433, the political balance shifted toward restricting such expeditions.
In May 1513, Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares reached the China coast by sea, marking a new phase of maritime contact between China and European powers. These arrivals did not target the Beibu Gulf directly, but they altered the larger regional maritime landscape, including demand, security concerns, and policy debates along South China’s coast. Over time, increased foreign maritime pressure helped intensify conflicts over legal and illegal trade.
In the mid-1500s, the Ming faced severe coastal violence often linked to wokou piracy (a mixed group that included many Chinese). Strict limits on maritime commerce and shipping could remove legal livelihoods, while coastal demand for trade remained strong, creating conditions for smuggling and armed protection. This crisis pressured the state to rethink how bans and regulated trade affected coastal society.
On 17 January 1567, Ming authorities established Haicheng County at Yuegang, making it the key legal outlet where private overseas trade could resume under regulation. This policy shift reduced the gap between market demand and legal channels, helping limit incentives for large-scale smuggling and piracy. Even though Yuegang was in Fujian, it signaled a new late-Ming approach that reshaped the wider South China maritime economy—including networks linking Hainan and the Beibu Gulf to larger trade circuits.
On 13 July 1605, a major earthquake struck the Qiongshan area of Hainan, causing widespread destruction and coastal subsidence. The event is linked to the formation or major reshaping of Dongzhai Harbor, where multiple villages reportedly sank. This disaster changed local settlement patterns and maritime geography, leaving a long-term mark on Hainan’s coastal hub landscape beyond the Ming period.
Hainan island and Beibu Gulf maritime networks (Tang–Ming, 8th–16th centuries)