One road, thousands of styles. The Hainan Island Tourist Highway has been open for more than a month, bringing new changes along the route——
“Everywhere along the way, there are scenery”
Our reporter Zhao Peng and Cao Wenxuan
Every scenery, every story, every city, every feature, galloping around the island, looking for the vast sea and sky... The Spring Festival is approaching, and a new check-in destination in Hainan is favored by tourists.
On December 18, 2023, the Hainan Island Tourist Highway was officially opened, running through 12 coastal cities and counties, 9 categories and 84 sections of landscape areas with different characteristics, as well as 22 headlands, 68 harbors, 216 places of interest, 31 scenic spots, 20 A resort... Positioned as the "No. 1 National Coast Scenic Road", the Hainan Island Tourist Highway connects Hainan's multi-element and in-depth natural and cultural landscapes, giving people more room for imagination when traveling to Hainan.
It has been open to traffic for more than a month. What new changes has the Hainan Island Tourist Highway brought along the route? The reporter visited.
More ways to play
The road stretches parallel to the coast, and more than 30 giant white windmills rotate slowly with the wind. In the Mulan Bay section of Wenchang on the Hainan Island Tourist Highway, Xing Xiafei, a tourist from Zhejiang, strolled along the beach with his friends. The camera in his hand kept clicking: "The scenery here is so beautiful, and the photos taken are very 'artistic'!"
"When you come to the Ring Island Tourist Highway, you must check in at these stations! You can enjoy the beautiful scenery and experience the local characteristics." After driving on the Ring Island Highway for a few days, Xing Xiafei posted his experience of this trip on social platforms, and received many comments from netizens Likes and comments. She said that although time was limited and she could only take a brief look, she already felt the surprises brought by this road.
Now, various versions of Hainan island tour road travel guides are circulating on the Internet. Many citizens and tourists choose to vacation “on the road”.
At the campsite of the "Yingge Talang" Station in Huangliu Town, Ledong Li Autonomous County, Hainan Province, tourists gathered in groups. Some were appreciating the "Yingge Hai Lao Salt Making and Drying Technique" while others were admiring the "sky realm" of the salt fields. "Beautiful view. "The name of the inn is full of poetry. It incorporates the local natural scenery and cultural features and is an attraction in itself!" said Mr. Yu, a tourist from Beijing.
"The 'Yingge Talang' Station takes 'Sunrise Peaks, Sunset Silver Mountains' as its theme, and highlights the salt culture, Li culture, and fishing culture tour experiences, allowing tourists to fully enjoy the natural beauty and local Li ethnic customs, as well as You can deeply feel the charm of the 'Yingge Hai Lao Salt Making and Sun-drying Technique' intangible inheritance project." said Gao Miao, planning manager of the "Yingge Treading Waves" station.
After the opening of the tourist highway around the island, Gao Miao clearly felt the increase in passenger flow: "The first day of the New Year's Day holiday was very busy. We held activities such as free tea and free trial stays in boat-shaped house rooms, hoping to give self-driving tourists who stop by Make great memories.”
The other two stations that debuted in the same batch as Yingge Talang Station are also equally popular. In Danzhou City, Hainan Province, the "Dan'er Chasing Light" Station has a small peak in passenger flow during the New Year's Day holiday. Visitors can not only stay and dine here, but also participate in fun activities such as picking duck eggs, digging up sandworms, feeding snails, and weaving fishing nets. The "Volcano Coast" station takes "volcano" as its theme and connects the surrounding Volcano Coast Geopark, Mangrove Rocks, Longmen Waves, Lover's Bay and other viewing platforms, attracting many tourists to visit and experience.
"We will continue to improve the post station service format and bring passengers an easy, comfortable and fast travel experience through the new 'local, online, and in-transit' model," said Huang Xinghai, chairman of Hainan Transportation Investment Holding Co., Ltd.
In addition to check-in special road stations, road cycling around the island, RV camping, etc. have also become popular methods nowadays. On the Danzhou section of the tourist highway around the island, more than 60 motorcycle riders rode freely along the road, soaking up the sunshine and sea breeze, and feeling the charm of the city; on the Haiwei section of Changjiang, tourists gathered in small groups, setting up canopies on the coast to camp outdoors. Very comfortable... "Hainan Island Tourist Highway provides tourists with a very open and participatory experience. It is an innovative move for Hainan tourism and opens a door to high-quality development for Hainan tourism." Hainan Tourism Development Research Institute Dean Chen Yao said.
On January 10, more than a dozen oil painters from all over the country set off from Haikou City, Hainan Province, on an eight-day tour of collecting and creating works along the Hainan Island Ring Tourist Highway. In 8 days, they completed a sketching trip on Hainan’s round-the-island tourist highway in an RV, and went deep into 7 sketching spots, covering Mulan Bay, Shanqin Bay, Betel Valley, "Dan'er Chasing Light" Station, and "Yingge Taunting the Waves" Inns, "Volcano Coast" inns, farmhouses and other places. "Along the way, there are scenery everywhere, each different, and they can all be included in paintings." Wang Like, former dean of Shandong Art Institute, said with emotion.
One road, thousands of styles. In order to allow tourists to better experience the charm of tourist roads, Hainan has also launched the "Hainan Island Tourist Highway Self-Driving Guide (Version 1.0)" and the "Top Ten Wonderful Tours" route products to provide tourists with more island culture, sports, sea, and natural exploration and other themed gameplay.
Greater opportunities
The Hainan Island Tourist Highway not only brings beautiful scenery, but also brings new opportunities. Data show that Hainan's self-driving tours have become more popular recently, with Sanya and Haikou ranking among the top three cities in the country for New Year's Day self-driving tours. Car rental orders in the two places have increased by more than 50% month-on-month, with nearly 90% of orders coming from foreign tourists.
At Shimei Bay in Wanning along the tourist highway around the island, tourists enjoy the natural scenery of the beach and experience surfing and other sports; at the Sun Bay section of Sanya, many newlyweds happily take wedding photos; at the "Volcano Coast" station, Wang Fei, a young man born in the 1990s, opened a milk tea shop... A highway is giving birth to a variety of business formats.
"After the opening of the post station, we recruited more than 30 employees from surrounding villages and towns." Li Yongqi, general manager of Hainan Tourism Investment and Development Co., Ltd., said that after the opening of the "Dan'er Zhuiguang" post station, the employment problem of some local villagers was solved. The company has also set up a mechanism to assist farmers according to local conditions and set up an agricultural product sales display area at the post station to facilitate the sales of Danzhou specialties and agricultural and sideline products, and help villagers increase production and income.
The new atmosphere does not stop around the featured inns. The opening of the tourist highway around the island is bringing new changes to the lives of more and more people along the route.
The main line of the Lingao section of the Hainan Island Tourist Highway starts from Xinying Mangrove National Wetland Park and ends at the southwest of Daotao Village in Chengmai County. It is about 58 kilometers in length and connects multiple tourist attractions, characteristic industrial towns and beautiful countryside. Previously, some villages were close to the sea, and the villagers relied on offshore fishing. Due to inconvenient transportation, even if they were adjacent to well-known scenic spots, tourists never knew about them.
Nowadays, the tourist road around the island has become a road to wealth, and many tourists are attracted by the fisherman's style of the village. “The fish we catch are easy to sell, and many tourists are waiting to buy seafood!” Wang Ruoyu, Party branch secretary of Changgong Village, Lincheng Town, Lingao County, said, “At present, the village is actively moving closer to the leisure, cultural and tourism industry, and there are more than 20 households in the village. There is a willingness to participate in the development of B&Bs, and many villagers are building new houses and preparing to start B&B and catering businesses. In addition, the village will also launch research projects."
The tourist highway around the island has become a road for entrepreneurship. The "Listen to the Wind Sing" B&B run by Chen Maosheng, an entrepreneurial young man from Lingao County and Xincun, is located next to the tourist highway. It has a good location and beautiful scenery. The rooms have been fully booked during the Spring Festival. "The round-island tourist highway has revitalized the tourism resources of the entire western Hainan route, and now our B&B business has reached a higher level!" Chen Maosheng is full of confidence when talking about the future development of B&Bs.
The tourist highway around the island has become the way home. Wang Jinxia, who works in Haikou, is a villager in Futixi Village, Dongying Town, Lingao County. Her village is a well-known garlic planting village. After the tourist highway around the island was opened to traffic, a foreign company invested in the "Langhua Xiaozhu Futi Boat Song" project because it was optimistic about the village's advantage of being close to the tourist highway. Wang Jinxia returned to the village and found a new job as a food court store supervisor. Together with the villagers, she had tourist meals at her doorstep.
"In the future, we will continue to enrich the tourism elements of Binhai International Slow City, promote the transformation and upgrading of fishery and the relocation of fishermen, create unique Lingao Highway tourism, and drive people along the route to increase their income and become rich." Director of Lingao County Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports Bureau Wang Kaibo said.
Currently, Hainan is actively planning to use tourist roads around the island to divert traffic, connect existing tourism products and resources along the highway, and focus on building outstanding sections of the highway based on lighthouses, characteristic fishing villages, beaches, etc. along the highway.
more perfect
"I didn't expect that the infrastructure around the island would be so complete soon after the highway was opened." At the Hongkanling parking area in Qiaotou Town, Chengmai County, Mr. Huang, a tourist, experienced the first fully liquid-cooled supercharging station on the tourist highway around the island. While opening the charging port of the car, he logged into the "Hainan Charging" WeChat applet with his mobile phone, scanned the code, took out the gun, and charged the car in a short while.
To enjoy the beautiful scenery on the road, complete public service facilities are essential. "A total of 70 viewing platforms and parking areas are planned along the round-island tourist highway. At present, all 45 viewing platforms are open to tourists, 21 parking areas have been put into use, and the construction of the remaining 4 parking areas is also accelerating." Hainan Provincial Transportation Huang Peng, chief engineer of the Transportation Department, said that each observation deck has a small parking area on the side of the road for tourists to park temporarily. Some parking areas also have charging spaces to recharge new energy vehicles.
"What is currently displayed in front of people is the relatively rudimentary 1.0 version of the round-island tourist highway. We will continue to improve and update it in the future." Huang Peng said that in the next step, Hainan will optimize road network coordination, strengthen maintenance management, improve safety emergency guarantees, and strengthen The linkage of information intelligence and resource development has deeply promoted the "fine decoration" of Hainan's round-island tourist highway.
Hainan’s round-island tourist highway is characterized by offshore waters, and a good marine environment is also crucial.
"Hainan has strengthened the protection and construction of beautiful bays in recent years, and the quality of the marine ecological environment has continued to improve. The water quality of Hainan's coastal waters will generally be excellent in 2023." Di Weijie, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, said that in order to better protect the beautiful bay, Hainan has We will coordinate the inspection and rectification of sewage outlets into the sea and the prevention and control of marine aquaculture pollution. We will include 1,985 sewage outlets in the province into the supervision list and urge coastal cities and counties to carry out inspections and rectifications. At the same time, the mandatory local standard "Aquaculture Tail Water Discharge Standard" will be implemented to further standardize aquaculture tail water discharge and environmental supervision.
In order to maximize the value of tourist roads around the island, on December 25, 2023, the "Interim Measures for the Management of Tourist Highways in Hainan Province" were officially issued to systematically guide and standardize the development of tourist highways. Hainan will also prepare plans to lead the development of the tourism industry, such as the "2.0 Industrial Development Plan for the Island Tourist Highway", "Healthy Tourism Industry Development Plan", and "Tourism Product System Plan for the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Belt".
On January 17, the Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports released to the world the LOGO (logo) of the Hainan Island Tourist Highway - "Pearl of the South China Sea". In the LOGO shape, the combination of waves and road looks like a crown or a beautiful garland, and the rolling waves seem to hold up a pearl. "We hope to enhance the awareness and recognition of the external image of Hainan Island Tourist Highway through brand identity." The relevant person in charge of the Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism and Culture said that this year Hainan will carry out the "Discover the Wonderful All the Way" Hainan Island Tourist Highway (Version 1.0) promotion Promotion, holding activities such as the "Discover the Wonderful Four Seasons" Tourist Highway Theme Competition around the Island, and strive to "brand" the Tourist Highway around the Island, coastal attractions, and inns, attracting more tourists to the "Pearl Necklace" of the Tourist Highway around the Island, and strive to Create the “golden sign” of Hainan International Tourism and Consumption Center. (People's Daily Overseas Edition)