Inside China's Mission Hills Golf Club, The Largest Golf Resort In The World

China has a complicated relationship with golf.

The sport was banned under Mao in the 1940s through the '80s for being a millionaires' hobby. It wasn't until 1984 that the first golf course in China was even constructed, and then 20 years later in 2004, building new golf courses was banned.

Of course, that hasn't stopped developers from doing it anyway. In 2004 there were 176 courses, and now 10 years and one moratorium later, there are over 1,000.

One of the first and certainly the largest is the Mission Hills Golf Club. Comprising two resorts in Shenzhen and Gongguan, it is the largest golf club in the world with 12 courses, all designed by famous golfers.

Mission Hills also built Mission Hills Haiku, another luxury golf club located on the resort island of Hainan - one of the only places in China exempt from the ban on building new golf courses.

Between these three wellness resorts, Mission Hills has hosted 100 international tournaments and sprawls across 15.5 square miles. Mission Hills Golf Club is the "World's Largest Golf Club" and Mission Hills Haiku has the "World's Largest Spa and Mineral Springs," according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Though it's located in a country with a hot-and-cold relationship with golf, Mission Hills Group has designed some incredible courses.