The island, explained plainly
Working guides for people considering the retreat — how it works, whether to trust it, and how to plan the trip. New guides are added regularly.
The retreat
What happens on a longevity retreat
The four days hour by hour: what to send before you fly, the fasted screening day, the panel’s second read, your written plan and the follow-up year.
Read the guide → WellnessWellness retreats in China
The four kinds you will find, how a medical health retreat in Hainan differs, the six axes it runs on, who it suits and who should not come, where you stay and what it costs.
Read the guide → WellnessSleep retreats in China
Four different products wear the phrase. Why sleep and stress run before the cell work, what the evidence actually supports, the one finding a retreat must never absorb — and what the Mind axis delivers across four days.
Read the guide → WellnessGut health retreats in China
Four products wear the phrase. What the panel actually measures on the digestive side, what gut microbiome testing can and cannot tell you, the alarm features a retreat must never absorb — and what the Core axis delivers.
Read the guide → WellnessCellular health and cellular ageing
Four things are sold under the name. The twelve hallmarks, which cellular markers can actually be measured and why autophagy cannot, what two years of calorie restriction really moved — and what the Cell axis delivers.
Read the guide → WellnessSarcopenia and age-related muscle loss
Strength falls two to three times faster than mass and the scale will not show it. How it is measured, the one thing the evidence supports, why no drug is approved anywhere — and what the Frame axis actually delivers.
Read the guide → WellnessCirculation and lymphatic therapy in China
Two systems hide inside one phrase and only one has a pump. How arterial stiffness, plaque and lymph drainage are actually measured, what the evidence supports, why it is not a drainage massage — and why the Flow axis runs first.
Read the guide → How it worksAfter a longevity retreat: the follow-up year
Four days produce a baseline; the twelve months after are where it is realised or lost. What a remote review covers, what it cannot do — and how long each kind of result honestly holds.
Read the guide → WellnessTraditional Chinese medicine in China
Six unrelated practices wear one name. What the trials actually support for acupuncture and tai chi, where the evidence is thin, the real risks in herbal medicine, and the narrow job TCM has on a retreat.
Read the guide → ComparisonLongevity clinics compared
Switzerland, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Hainan — four business models wearing one word. What each is legally allowed to give you, where the evidence stops, and eight questions that work anywhere.
Read the guide → WellnessAnti-aging treatment in China
Six unrelated things are sold under one phrase. Which are evidence-based, why Chinese law licenses cell therapy against disease and never against age, what a biological-age score is worth, and what you can actually get here.
Read the guide →The medicine
What a longevity program costs
What the $2,700 retreat covers and what it does not, why the licensed programs have no price list, what a hospital quote is built from — and the honest Alpine comparison.
Read the guide → Cell therapyStem cell therapy in China
Which conditions are approved and where: the twenty cell and gene technologies Boao Lecheng has licensed across five batches, the six newest with the hospital each landed at — and the three honest routes when yours is not on the list.
Read the guide →Cell therapyWhat is NK cell therapy?
Your own natural-killer cells, expanded and returned — the filed indications, how a course runs, what the trial evidence supports and does not, who is declined, and what it cannot do.
Read the guide → Cell therapyImmunotherapy in China
Five unrelated families wear one word. Which have national approval, which run only on a pilot-zone filing, why the 2016 DC-CIK scandal wrote the rules, and why immune ageing has no licensed treatment anywhere.
Read the guide → ComparisonNK cell therapy abroad: Vietnam, Japan, Thailand and China
The country is not the real variable — the legal route is. The three routes, what each jurisdiction requires, why a stem-cell rule is not an NK rule, and the checklist to take to any provider.
Read the guide → ProgramsMitochondrial & NAD+ therapy in China
Two different things are called mitochondrial therapy. What NAD+ precursors, cofactors and hyperbaric oxygen actually are, what the human trials found, why it is not cell therapy — and the seven questions to ask any NAD+ clinic.
Read the guide → WellnessRed light therapy in China
Photobiomodulation, honestly: the one indication strong enough for treatment guidelines, the dose problem that makes the rest of the literature argue with itself, and what a full-body cabin is really for on a four-day programme.
Read the guide → ProgramsFunctional medicine in China
How a 1+X programme is actually assembled, what functional infusion puts in the line and what a course looks like, which items have evidence behind them and which have none, why a house catalogue is not a guideline — and seven questions for any clinic.
Read the guide → ProgramsTherapeutic plasma exchange in China
What TPE and double-filtration apheresis actually remove, where it is established hospital medicine, what the AMBAR and plasma-dilution studies really found, the side effects brochures omit — and seven questions for any clinic.
Read the guide → ProgramsHyperthermia therapy in China
Local, fever-range and extreme whole-body hyperthermia are three different things. What the heat does, what the cervical-cancer and sarcoma trials found, the cardiovascular exclusions — and why a sauna is not a dose.
Read the guide → Cell therapyStem cell therapy for knee osteoarthritis
UC-MSCs injected into the joint under imaging guidance — what the randomised trials found, why the guidelines still say no, who it suits, and when a knee replacement is the better answer.
Read the guide → Cell therapyStem cells for liver cirrhosis
UC-MSC infusion over three weeks for Child-Pugh A/B cirrhosis — how it is meant to work, the fifteen exclusions, aftercare, and what it cannot do.
Read the guide → SafetyIs stem cell therapy safe?
What 55 randomised trials found, the five real risks by mechanism, why unlicensed clinics caused blindness and infections, who is declined — and what a licensed hospital does about each.
Read the guide → SafetyIs stem cell therapy legal in China?
The 2015 research-only rules, State Council Order 818 (in force 1 May 2026), what Boao Lecheng may license — and six questions that separate a lawful program from a clinic ad.
Read the guide → The zoneBoao Lecheng, explained
China’s only medical special zone: the 2013 charter, the three things only its hospitals can do, twenty licensed cell and gene therapies, how it sits inside the Hainan Free Trade Port, and the honest comparison with the Alpine clinics.
Read the guide →Your trip
Planning a trip to Hainan
Which airport to fly into, when to come, how long to stay, what to bring, and what the first hours look like.
Read the guide → LogisticsVisa-free entry, in detail
The 61 nationalities, the 30-day count, the direct-flight rule, what the border asks, prescription medication through customs, registration and overstay, and the 240-hour transit route.
Read the guide → Quick answersQuestions, answered
The short versions — nine common questions on the main page, honestly answered.
Read them →Or download the Retreat Dossier (PDF) → — itinerary, inclusions, programs, practicalities.