Behind the tropical beaches and mountain rainforests, Hainan also hides a unique industrial tourism landscape including cutting-edge aerospace technology, coconut processing, and salt fields that have been in continuous operation for over 1,000 years. Keep reading to catch a hint of some of the island's less famous attractions!

Spaceflight Sightseeing

Exhibits at the Wenchang Space Exploration Center include debris from rocket launches, interactive multimedia tours of outer space, and a hands-on water rocket launch. Tickets can be purchased through China Travel Service's WeChat mini-program "中旅航旅". Open to the public daily from 9:30 to 17:30, the Wenchang Aerospace Supercomputing Cultural Tourism Area has displays full sized satellites while the Wenchang Jixing Meteorite Museum contains over 400 samples of meteorites from around the world. Tourists who are interested in "touching outer space" with their own hands can make reservations via the "航天超算文旅" WeChat mini-program. The park is closed every Monday.

It is worth mentioning that, the Wenchang Space Exploration Center, Aerospace Supercomputing Cultural Tourism Area, and Chunguang Coconut Kingdom will provide free admission to tourists during the Wenchang Village Volleyball Series.

Coconut Processing

Chunguang Coconut Kingdom is China's first coconut themed tourism park. Whether its making coconut-flavored snacks, braiding handicrafts made from coconut fiber, or walking along the 144-meter-long panoramic corridor that showcases the modern intelligent coconut processing production line, there's a lot to see here.

Haikou Yeshu Group No. 5 Industrial Plant. (Photo by Cao Zhi, Hinews)

Haikou Yeshu Group No. 5 Industrial Plant is open to the public free of charge. After booking a visit through their official RedNote account, visitors can observe the fully automated process of coconut shelling, juicing, and bottling up close. After visiting the brand's history museum, there are special coconut souvenirs available for sale.

Historical Industry

The Yangpu Salt Fields. (Photo by Li Tianping, Hainan Daily)

The Yangpu Salt Fields are a national-grade industrial heritage site. Dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty, these salt fields are still producing table salt. There's also a lot of vendors selling a variety of local salt-baked snacks.

Yinggehai Salt Fields. (Photo by Wang Chenglong, Hainan Daily)

At almost 3,500 hectares, the much larger Yinggehai Salt Fields have been producing high quality industrial-grade salt for South China since the 1960s. Although it is an active industrial site, it has also become a salt culture tourism project featuring everything from sightseeing to bed and breakfasts, homestays, hostels, and fine dining. The Shilü Mining Expo Park is one of the richest iron ore mines in Asia. Displaying historic mining equipment and open-pit mines, it tells the stories of the site's development from the mid-Qing Dynasty onwards.

By integrating cutting-edge aerospace technology, historic craftsmanship, and sweet coconut products, Hainan's industrial tourism offers visitors to the island a brand-new and unique travel option that differs from conventional seaside vacations.