Second-home buyers favor vacation spots

Chinese people in search of a second home are increasingly opting for vacation spots with healthy living environments, providing buyers with an occasional break from city smog.

Popular vacation destinations such as Hainan and Yunnan have clear environmental benefits - a warm climate, mountains, beaches and fresh air, factors that are increasingly attractive to residents of Chinese cities with air pollution problems. In Haikou, capital of Hainan province, more than 43 percent of the residential properties were sold to people from outside the province last year, according to the city's housing and urban-rural development bureau.

"The figure is expected to increase in 2014, because Haikou is among the country's most livable cities," said Dai Kaiquan, director of the bureau's market management department.