Hainan Normal University is located in Haikou city of Hainan Province, a beautiful tropical island city and a well-known historical and culture city. Enveloped in green trees and woods, the south campus is beautiful and pleasant with coconut breeze and fragrance everywhere. The University was established in the autumn of 1949, with “virtue, knowledge, truth, and innovation” as its motto. In 2007, it was certified as “Excellent” in the evaluation for undergraduate course teaching in universities and colleges by the Ministry of Education.

            Hainan Normal University is the sole key university under the administration of Hainan Province for teacher education, multidiscipline and advanced scientific studies. Currently, it has 17 colleges and 23 research institutes, offering 44 bachelor's degree programs and 17 master's degree programs, and the University also has 5 key disciplines at the provincial level and 2 provincial research bases for humanities and social sciences.

           The university now has nearly 800 full-time teachers, of whom around 400 are professors and associate professors, and 49% of the faculty have master’s degrees or above. There are 1 National Outstanding Contributions expert with, 2 candidates for the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University by the Ministry of Education, 2 National Model Teachers, 1 May 1st Labor Medal winner, 1 National Excellent Teacher, 21 State Council Special Allowance experts, and 31 Provincial Outstanding Contributions experts.

            Hainan Normal University boasts good infrastructure and facilities, and provides favorable teaching and research conditions. It now consists of 4 campuses, occupying an area of 1, 567,600 square meters. The University possesses a total equipment value for teaching and research apparatus 86,659,000 yuan RMB. There are 26 teaching laboratories (amongst 2 provincial key laboratories), 5 provincial demonstration centers for experimental teaching, and 5 excellent laboratories at the provincial level. The University has 166 internship and training bases. The university library boasts a book collection of 1,332,600 volumes.

          The University recruits students from 30 provinces (municipalities or autonomous regions), and has now a student enrollment of more than 20,000, out of which 253 postgraduate candidates and 12,860 undergraduates. Graduates from the University have long been welcomed due to their high quality and strong competence. In Hainan, 80% of the secondary school teachers, and 90% of the secondary school headmasters, special-grade teachers, and master teachers are graduates from Hainan Normal University. Therefore, the University has been dubbed as “Prestigious University in Hainan Island” and “Cradle for Teachers”.

           In recent years, Hainan Normal University has established the Hainan-based, and nationwide-orientated and Southeast Asia-oriented service orientation. To make full use of the advantage of neighboring to Hong Kong and Macao, and popularity among and closeness to Southeast Asian people, the University has actively expanded the exchange and cooperation, broadened the academic exchanges and enjoyed growing international reputation. In 2007, the first Confucius Institute was founded collaboratively with the Chinese Language Education Center in Jakarta, Indonesia.

            In the new century, Hainan Normal University will keep up its adherence to talents, quality, learning, and features, seize the opportunity to strengthen the teaching reform, promote its quality and level, and strive to build itself into a satisfactory normal university geared to the strategic needs of economic and social development in Hainan.