On the coast of the South China Sea, a new spring has sprung.

In the spring of 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping toured Hainan during celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Hainan Province and announced the CPC Central Committee’s support for Hainan to construct a free trade port with Chinese characteristics. In the seven years since then, places he visited in the tropical island province have become a picture of prosperity under the construction of the Hainan FTP. In the series Hainan FTP Forerunners, we follow HIMC reporters into fields, villages, and labs to examine Hainan’s vernal development. Witness how the science and technology that created China’s first “space seeds” help ensure China’s future food security at the Nanfan Seed Breeding Base. Hear how the power of innovation forced prosperity through the cracks of Shicha Village’s rocky volcanic terrain in a story of rural revitalization. Learn how the courage to surpass depths of 10,000 meters empowers Hainan’s pursuit of netting gains through the marine economy and deep-sea science and technology at the Deep-sea Scientific Research Base. 

A Few years ago, an associate professor at West Anhui University’s School of Biology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Dai Jun, decided to try planting dendrobium in the cracks of the rocky volcanic terrain in China’s southernmost province, Hainan. Dendrobium, a type of orchid, is prized as a medicinal material in traditional Chinese medicine. It is also the “code” that opened the doors of prosperity for the people of Shicha Village in Haikou, the provincial capital located in the north of this tropical island province. Espousing environmentally friendly planting methods, Dai and his team transformed the barren hills in the village into a dendrobium planting base, empowering the development of the “garden industry,” intensive processing, and tourism. In his view, scientific research matters most when it is executed in the field and brings about real benefits. From bare, rocky hills to an industrial hotspot dotted with dendrobium, on the path of rural revitalization, Shicha Village has undergone dramatic changes that have brought prosperity to its residents.