10 Yuan 20th Anniversary of Hainan Special Economic Zone

Hainan was designated a Special Economic Zone in 1988 — the largest in China by land area, encompassing the entire island province, a distinction that set it apart from the smaller coastal enclaves at Shenzhen and Zhuhai. The designation came with considerable political risk; Hainan's early years were marked by a notorious scandal in which local officials imported over 89,000 vehicles and nearly three million television sets duty-free and resold them on the mainland, exploiting SEZ loopholes in what became one of the most embarrassing economic policy failures of the reform era.

This commemorative was struck in the year of the Beijing Olympics, when China's mint output for collector issues reached exceptional volume.