Aerial view of a section of the round-the-island sightseeing at Yalong Bay Tourism Resort in Sanyang, south China's Hainan Province, Aug.5, 2023. (File photo: China News Service/Luo Yunzhou)

After nearly three years of intense construction, Haikou, South China's Hainan province, held an opening ceremony for the Hainan Coastal Scenic Highway on Monday.

Hainan aims to become an international tourism consumption center by 2025, and the highway is considered its landmark project.

The scenic highway runs through 12 coastal cities and counties around the island, including Haikou, Qionghai, Sanya, Danzhou and Changjiang. It also passes through 84 landscape areas, including cliffs, wetlands, windmills, coconut groves, estuaries, and countryside. The total length of the main line is 988 kilometers, including 453 kilometers of newly constructed and reconstructed sections and 535 kilometers of utilized sections. It connects with high-speed railways, expressways, and national highways, building a transportation system of "fast speed and slow travel". Along the route, 45 viewing platforms, 25 parking areas, 66 lay-bys, 14 new energy supply stations, eight maintenance work areas, and many leisure stations have been built to show local natural and cultural features and provide tourist services.

"The Hainan Coastal Scenic Highway connects 31 A-level scenic spots, 21 coastal tourism resorts, and 40 internet-famous sites in the province," said Wang Zhongyun, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Film, Television, Publications and Sports. "The completion and opening of the Hainan Coastal Scenic Highway is expected to effectively promote the development of Hainan's tourism industry in terms of resource integration and product format innovation."

"The roads are for transportation, but the Hainan Coastal Scenic Highway is a tourism product. It is an innovative tourism product the province offers," said Chen Yao, president of the Hainan Tourism Development Research Institute. A self-drive guidebook providing tips for tourist routes was also launched to supplement the new highway.

In addition, the tourism highway around the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park is scheduled to be completed and opened for traffic in 2025, according to Huang Peng, chief engineer of the Hainan Provincial Department of Transportation.