Policymakers in Hainan have said they will continue to develop
the province's booming tourism, but not lose sight of key
environmental issues.
Governor Luo Baoming said yesterday that within five years, the
country's southernmost province wants to be seen as a "green, open,
prosperous, civilized and harmonious island".?
A young girl presents a rose to a Russian student attending a
winter camp in Haikou, Hainan province, earlier this month. The
island province welcomed more than 1.5 million tourists from Russia
last year. Lin Meng
"A sound, ecological environment is central to the development
of Hainan," Luo told the annual provincial people's congress, which
convened yesterday and ends on Tuesday.
The island, which has 8.5 million residents, became the
country's newest province and largest Special Economic Zone 20
years ago, a decade into the reform and opening-up period.
Its service industry, in particular tourism, has powered ahead
ever since.
The province attracted 18.46 million visitors - 1.51 million
from Russia alone - last year, generating profits of $301.6
million, tourism bureau chief Chen Qi said.
The island's development has been made possible by an influx of
professionals, such as 42-year-old Li Jingna, a native of Hohhot,
Inner Mongolia, who moved to Hainan in 1992 as an economic
development specialist and immediately fell in love with the
place.
Li quit her job, became a tour guide, and gradually established
a reputation as the best in the business nationwide. In September,
she was voted one of the 53 "National Moral Models".
But as Hainan has grown into the country's number 2 holiday
destination, behind the Jiuzhaigou National Park in Sichuan
province, its ecology and environment have become increasingly
vulnerable to development projects, Li said.
"When I first came to Yalong Bay (a resort in the city of Sanya)
in the early 90s, there was hardly anything around; it was much
cleaner. Now, all you see are hotels and property developments by
the beach."
Since 2003, Hainan has achieved annual double-digit GDP growth.
This year's target is 11 percent, but officials have also vowed to
lower the per-unit GDP energy use by 2.5 percent from last
year.
"We must continue to grow, that's the reality," Li said, while
stressing the need to protect the environment.
The provincial government shares her concern and is developing
its infrastructure to better accommodate the tourism boom, Luo
said.
In April, the Guangdong-Hainan Railway, the first cross-sea
railway in China, opened to traffic.
Construction of a 302-km railway that will reduce the journey
time between the cities of Haikou and Sanya from three-and-a-half
hours to 80 minutes is also under way.
(China Daily January 25, 2008)