A few days ago, China National Geographic magazine officially released the list of "China's Most Beautiful Highways", and a total of 30 highways in 10 regions, such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region and the Tianshan Mountainous Area, were selected for the list. Among them, the Hainan Ring Road ranks second among the most beautiful highways in the eastern coastal area.
Sanya Sun Bay Tourist Highway. Hainan Daily reporter Feng Shuo photographed
If the contemporary history of China's highways is written on wheels, then the most beautiful highways selected for the list undoubtedly set off the first page of an important chapter, and are typical representatives of China's highway culture.
The history of highways has evolved in tandem with human civilization. For tourists, the coastal South Ring Road is the best way to appreciate and get to know this island. Only by truly embarking on this road, seeing the scenery on the road, meeting the people on the road, and hearing the stories they tell, can we understand the real Hainan.
Haikou Bay Tourist Highway. Hainan Daily reporter Feng Shuo photographed
Countless years of history that Hainan can walk
At present, the ring road that everyone generally believes is the G98 Hainan Ring Road. In 2011, the original Four Expressways of Hainan East Line, West Line, Haikou Ring Road and Sanya Ring City were uniformly renamed Hainan Ring Expressway, numbered "G98". Along the highway, it is the most attractive and tropical island coast of the mainland with beautiful ecological environment, rich biological resources, unique landscape resources, diverse shore types, and diverse history and culture. Over the years, the G98 Hainan Ring Expressway has become the first choice for self-driving travel.
The construction of the Hainan Provincial Ring Island Tourist Highway has once again filled people's expectations. On December 31, 2020, the Hainan Provincial Ring Island Tourism Highway Project officially started. This "Dream Road" has a total length of 1944 kilometers, runs through the coastline of Hainan Island, and the main line is 988.2 kilometers long, of which 453.2 kilometers are newly reconstructed and 535 kilometers are utilized. A more ultimate road travel experience is about to begin.
In fact, whether it is the G98 Hainan Ring Road, the roundabout tourist highway under construction, or the provincial highway and county road near the coast, it is an integral part of the ring road system. No matter how you choose, you can always achieve road travel around the island.
These highways have connected the countless years of Hainan Island, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are "the history of Hainan that can be walked".
The volcanic groups of qiongbei and the basalts on the coast of qiongxi are surging with the power of hundreds of millions of years of creation, witnessing the vicissitudes of the sea and mulberry fields spanning several geological ages. Dating back to the Early Paleozoic Era, Hainan Island and the Leizhou Peninsula also belong to the southern end of the Chinese mainland Plate, and leiqiong is connected to each other. Along the ring road, the animal fossils of Xinchongdong found in Changjiang Li Autonomous County, located in the hinterland of the lower reaches of the Changhua River, will also tell you that 400,000 years ago, Hainan Island was connected to the mainland, and wild animals in Guangdong and Guangxi can reach Hainan Island through the Qiongzhou Strait Land Bridge.
Luobi Cave in Sanya is a natural ecological home inhabited by early humans, advancing the history of human activity in Hainan to 10,000 years ago. The many Neolithic sites distributed in the coastal areas of southeast Hainan show that Hainan was not a barbaric place in prehistory, and that between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago, many human groups lived here, and it is a place with rich relics and flourishing civilizations.
Endless landscapes string together dazzling landscapes of the bay
The vast space strung together by the ring road gives people the ultimate tropical island landscape.
It seems that tourists who come to Hainan are not unmoved by this blue. The ring road leads people to approach the 1944 km of coastline around the island, which is hainan's "most beautiful asset". On the long coastline, a bay is characteristic, with fine white sand beaches, graceful coconut trees, and blue sea, each of which makes people linger. If you want to watch a beautiful sunset in Hainan, then Qizi Bay may be the first place to go. This beach is located on the Changjiang River in western Hainan, facing due west. In the evening, the sunset dyes the sky red, and the clouds in the sky are also dyed red by the sunset, reflecting on the blue sea, the sea ripples, jumping with golden dots, red and blue, like a jewel. When the clouds cleared and the sunset approached the surface of the sea, the light around them dimmed, but the sunset was still dazzlingly red... Netizens called it "the most beautiful sunset", which can be described as deserved.
Hainan also has the most concentrated and well-preserved island-type tropical rainforest in China. Through the ring road, tourists can reach Diaoluo Mountain, Jianfengling and other places. Surrounded by lush greenery, mountain springs and sweet air all year round, you can relax your body and mind. Bring your camera and binoculars and go to the forest to look for birds, listen to their gentle and crisp songs, and watch their beautiful and colorful wings. It's a fun trip to feel the life of nature.
People often overlook the headlands that accompany the harbor and are rugged in the midst of blue waves. This is the imprint of the waves hitting and washing away the earth. In areas of soft rock or argy coast, the erosion of waves is very pronounced, retreating to form harbors. On the contrary, coastal areas composed of rocks with greater hardness and strong corrosion resistance, such as metamorphic rocks, have become prominent headlands separating the harbors due to the slower rate of erosion by waves and the speed of retreat to land.
The headlands along the ring road stretch from Tong Khu Kok to the east, Kam Muk Kok to the south, Yu Ling Chau to the west, and Magnolia Tou in the north.
Among them, the most famous is perhaps The Magnolia Head, which is known as the second fastest water gate in the world, and the speed of the current is second only to the world's first rapid water gate in the English Channel. Because there were always wooden boats in distress in the past, the boards were piled up by the waves and rotted on the shore, so it was named "wood rotten head". Today, the 72.12-meter-high lighthouse on this headland is the tallest lighthouse on the Chinese coast, guiding the way for ships on the vast front road and illuminating the way home.
Unlimited style Touch the culture nurtured by the sea
If the cultural and natural differences brought about by cross-regions are the most distinctive features of China's 109 National Highway culture, then the tropical coastal culture is the soul of Hainan Highway culture. Go along the ring road, look for the pristine, gentle, exciting sea, touch the coastal culture it has bred, and you will understand why people sing "the sea, the sea, just like mother".
Fishermen process fresh eels. Hainan Daily reporter Li Mengyao photographed
Why do people say that Minato is a favorite place in heaven? When you come to Wanning City and Lezhen Port North Port, you will find that the predecessors sincerely do not deceive you. As the largest inland lagoon in Hainan, The Longest Channel of Gangbei Port is more than 1,000 meters long and the water depth is between 3 meters and 5 meters, making it the only natural haven in Wanning. Suitable for the habitat of the species, the bustling fish stall vendors and the shuttle boats have inadvertently opened its most tender embrace for thousands of years.
Fishermen go out to sea, just driving a small fishing boat, pulling nets offshore to catch fish. Experienced fishermen can catch a lot of seafood with only baskets, nets and bamboo rods. On the side of the road north of the port, shelves and nets are arbitrarily built to dry squid and cut open sea fish. They are baptized by the sun and the sea breeze, and the surface condenses into fine white salt grains.
"Fry the fish, it's best to eat with porridge!" The enthusiastic eldest sister who wears a bamboo bucket will always recommend the consistent eating method of the ancestors for generations. Looking up, the bright red flag flutters on the bow of each boat, which has a different flavor. The ancients wrote the artistic conception of "fishing boats singing late", but they can read the hard work and labor of fishermen, which is clearly the struggle song of laborers in the new era.
The Nandu River, Changhua River, Wanquan River, Lingshui River and Longjuan River that rush from the mountains eventually slowly enter the sea. The alluvial plains here are agriculturally developed, densely populated, and the high-quality shipping conditions have made it easy to achieve convenient transportation, so that a large number of manpower and material resources meet, gather and transit here. Commercial towns often come into being.
Unlike the ebb and flow of the tide not far away, the century-old arcade street surrounded by the sea is more willing to be silent. At the beginning of its construction, it was a window for trade inside and outside Hainan Island, an important transit station connecting the inland of the motherland and the South China Sea, where a large amount of capital, personnel and goods flowed. The strong commercial atmosphere, the development of the agency industry, the department store industry and the catering industry, gave birth to the brand business names of qilou old street, "the arcade building is lined up, the merchants are crowded, and the fireworks are dense", which is the true portrayal of the prosperous scene in Haikou at that time.
Arcade building on Zhongshan Road in Haikou. Hainan Daily reporter Song Guoqiang photographed
As a carrier of Chinese ocean and commercial consciousness, the Arcade is the result of the fusion and collision of Chinese and Western cultures, and the brewing and blooming of commercial civilization. Its rise, prosperity and decline, and even today's rejuvenation, all carry Hainan's history of opening up, overseas Chinese and commercial history. If you don't understand this history, it doesn't matter, Qilou Old Street can still open a window to understand Hainan culture from another dimension. Go to Laojie to eat bowls of spicy soup rice and Hainan noodles, these locals from snacks to large old shops are also another reflection of Hainan culture. After all, the smell of fireworks in the world is the most soothing to the hearts of mortals.