Oldest Durian Tree in Hainan, China

It was easier than I expected to locate the oldest durian tree in Hainan, China – even without Google Maps.

I found the name of the park from this article about Hainan Ancient Trees, downloaded Amaps app, and then pinched and zoomed around the region until I spotted the park. I felt quite pleased with myself for finding it.

But my sleuthing was unnecessary. Once we arrived in Hainan, we were blessed with friends who packed our little family into a van and drove us directly to the tree, no maps or translation apps necessary.

Getting to the Qixianling Global Tropical Fruit Expo Center 

We had it easy. The tree is located about a 2-hour drive north of Sanya City in a region called Baoting. There is no highspeed train or easy public transit to the region, and a taxi drive would have cost us a good 700 yuan ($105 USD).

But lucky us! We just stepped out of the hotel and into the 7-passenger van rented by our Fruit Hunting friend Rex Yang, which was big and comfy enough for us and our little twins.

As we left Sanya City behind, I quickly realized how lush the rolling hillsides were. It was green, green, green.

Even coming from Penang, I’d never seen so many betel nut palms. Betel nut, as well as rubber trees, was clearly the primary cash crop in this region.

We drove and drove, seeing a house only here or there. The countryside felt wide-open and spacious – not crammed with China’s 1 billion people as I’d somehow imagined it.

But what was meant to be a 2-hour-drive on pleasantly asphalted roads quickly changed when the highway was closed for construction. As we reached Baoting Town our little twins began squawking. They hate long car rides, and by the 3.5-hour mark had had quite enough of Rex’s plush and comfy van thank-you-very-much.

So as we pulled up to a welcoming party waiting to greet us in front of the Qixianling Global Tropical Fruit Expo Center, we slid the van door open to the harmonized cacophony of angry 7-month-olds.

In that moment, it also suddenly began raining. Hard.

As everyone scrambled for umbrellas and the shelter of the waiting tourism tram, introductions were forgotten.

It was becoming a surprisingly not-that-easy trip to see Hainan’s oldest durian tree.

The History of the Qixianling Global Tropical Fruit Expo Center 

The research center only opened to the public in 2022, when it got a new name and rebranding.

Previously it was known as the Baoting Tropical Crops Research Institute, and before that the Baoting Breeding Station. According to this Baidu article, the center was founded in April 1954 as a nursery for proliferating baby trees for farms in the area.

It seems like the center’s primary function is still in crop reproduction and distribution. Our first stop was a demonstration tent discussing the genetic and breeding programs going on in the center with durian and particularly with rambutan.

The center has developed 12 varieties of rambutans, which are called the BR series (Baoting Rambutan). Since rambutans were in season during our visit, the guides assured us we would get to try some BRs later on in the tour.

The park felt new and shiny, populated by huge infographic posters, and a whole cast of cutesy fruit characters dressed in the local costumes of the Li and Miao tribes.

But then we stopped at the oldest mangosteen tree in China.

Mangosteen and rambutan were planted in 1960, and many trees were planted at the same time. Today, they still stand in their original plots, dripping with a type of ornament-like epiphyte I had never seen before.

They also looked a bit… defoliated.

“The original ones are actually dead” the guide clarified.

“Oh,” I observed.

“But we planted the second generation here, in between the 2 dead ones, so you can see mangosteen is growing really well now, so we can also grow mangosteen in Hainan,” he said.

I could not, in fact, see that the newly planted mangosteen was doing very well. It also looked a bit deforested. But honestly, in the dripping rain, almost everything was feeling a bit grey eccept the bright bunches of rambutans in the trees which were clearly thriving.

I started to wonder about the old durian tree. On the date of our visit, it was supposed to be 68 years old.

Then we rounded a corner and there it was.

The oldest durian tree in Hainan

This tree, our guides informed us, was planted in 1958, four years after the breeding farm opened.

If this time period is ringing a bell, yes – the durian, mangosteen and rambutan were all planted during China’s Great Leap forward.

But how they ended up in China has more to do with Malaysia’s history.

How Malaysian Fruits Traveled to Hainan

In the 1950’s Malaysia was in the final years of a British government clinging to power over a disgruntled population. The brief collaboration of freedom fighters and communists meant the British were losing a guerilla war they termed a “Great Emergency.”

British authorities deported around 30,000 ethnic Chinese Malaysians deemed as colluding with the commies and sent them to China – whether they had been born in China or not.

Then, under the 1950 Brigg’s Plan, authorities forcibly relocated some 500,000 ethnic Chinese Malaysians from farms in rural areas to fenced-off “New Villages” where they could be more easily controlled. Many of these people lost access to their farmland and were forced to depend on rations issued by the government Some decided it was better to leave and seek their fortunes in a place where they already spoke the language – China.

On arriving to China, these Chinese Malaysians were known as “overseas Chinese” or huaqiao (华侨). The Chinese government created resettlement areas for them – Hainan had 5 official Overseas Chinese Resettlement areas. It’s estimated over 14,000 huaqiao (华侨) settled in Hainan from all over SE Asia.

They brought with them what they knew how to grow – pepper, rubber, betel nut, rambutans, cempedaks – and of course, durians.

This tree was not the only durian tree planted during the 1950’s, but it’s probably the only one still standing.

The Oldest Durian Tree

Peeking out from under my umbrella, I could just see the lightning scars that had created a bald spot in the tree’s spreading canopy.

This tree, our guides informed us, had survived over 167 typhoons during its lifetime, and been hit by lighting 8 times.

And it was still not only alive, but producing durians.

Rex explained that this tree has given farmers in Hainan a lot of hope that durian trees can survive Hainan’s rough monsoonal weather, and courage to attempt planting at scale.

The tree is now carefully studied every season. I was astonished to find out that the platform next to the tree was not just for social media selfies, but was actually a mechanized platform that can lift scientists into the canopy to study its pollination and fruiting.

I think we were planning to visit the 9-acres of durian trees growing at the center, but as we finished gaping up at the tree, the baby twin sleeping in her carrier decided to wake up with a bloodcurdling howl. She was ready for lunch.

We asked for a resting spot to give the babies their packed lunch, and were whisked back to the durian tasting area to get our first bite of Hainan-grown durian and the promised rambutans.

Our first bite of Hainan Durian

It was a very nice thing on a rainy day to find out that my dreams of Hainan durian was coming true!

The old durian tree was done for the season, it’s last fruits falling at the end of July, but the staff assured me we hadn’t missed the durian season and they had plenty of Monthong.

Since we are very familiar with Monthong grown in Thailand, this would be an excellent comparison to find out if Monthong in Hainan, grown in rainy weather, would taste good.

They set the Monthong out for us together with a “Durian Cheese” dessert, some Durian Lattes, and the promised BR rambutans.

We had neglected to mention that we don’t eat cheese or milk, so to avoid embarrassment threw our enthusiasm into tasting what was actually a perfeclty ripe Monthong.

It had a firm outer skin that easily collapsed inwards to a soft cream under thumb pressure.

Rex said that for Chinese tastes, this was a little bit too soft. He liked it a bit more sticky/gluey in texture.

But for us, this was just about perfect. The durians were very fresh, with dark mature seeds, and had probably ripened in just 2 days off the tree. The flavor was like a clean vanilla pudding, very sweet and floral with no real garlic after-funk.

I’d heard all kinds of rumors that Hainan was too cold or too wet or too windy to grow nice quality durians – but I gotta say, these were very nice.

The Hainan BR Rambutans

Of course, we were very curious to try the rambutans. These varieties were supposedly bred in the nurseries here from the original seedlings taken from Malaysia.

They had 2 varieties available, the BR6 and BR7.

The darker red one reminded me of the Gula Batu, and the one with a little bit of green was a little bit more dry like Anak Sekolar. I wondered if that was their ancestry.

If we ever came back to Hainan when the old durian tree was fruiting, it would be interesting to try and guess which variety was its ancestor too!

Getting to the Qixianling Global Tropical Fruit Expo Center

The Qixianling Global Tropical Fruit Expo Center is located in Baoting Li and Miao District, at the GPS coordinates 18°36’43.9″N 109°43’04.6″E.

I did put a pin on Google Maps for you, but if you’re serious about going you should probably just download Amaps or Baidu Maps so, after visiting the fruit center, you can search for local markets and the many “farmhouse” restaurants specializing in local wild vegetables – like we did! 😋