A Five-Hundred-Year Journey: Sharing Qionghai’s Story Globally

(SeaPRwire) –   Boao: Where the World Meets | Qionghai: Where Free Trade Thrives

QIONGHAI, China, March 30, 2026 — The “Boao: Where the World Meets, Qionghai: Where Free Trade Thrives” City Exhibition took place from March 24-27 at Boao’s Dongyu Island Cultural Park. This event was the first major city presentation following the initiation of the Hainan Free Trade Port’s island-wide special customs operations, offering a comprehensive view of Qionghai’s function as a core area of the free trade port. Centered on the themes of global connectivity and open development, the exhibition used innovative technology and design to transform policy and culture into engaging, multi-sensory experiences.

In the opening hall, the “Digital Twin Experience Pod” provided a vision of future daily life in Qionghai, accessible simply by using an identity card. The interactive “Cycling through Qionghai” installation allowed guests to embark on virtual tours along the Wanquan River and through historic Nanyang towns, which were originally established by overseas Chinese returning from Southeast Asia. A key highlight was the “Tale of the Sea” post office, featuring an artistically designed mailbox. Its inspiration came from a shipwreck artifact retrieved from 1,500 meters beneath the South China Sea—a “Fahua-style” plum vase that had rested on the ocean floor for five hundred years. Once a witness to the Maritime Silk Road’s grandeur aboard merchant vessels on turbulent seas, the vase has been reinterpreted as a contemporary landmark that connects past and future. Visitors selected postcards, wrote messages, applied a special Qionghai postmark, and sent their mementos home.

The postcards displayed images from Qionghai Chronicles, a celebrated two-year photography series by Wang Yao, a recipient of both the World Press Photo award and the China News Award. Her photographs depicted an elderly fisherman repairing nets at dawn in Tanmen port, children playing beside the Wanquan River, the convivial atmosphere of afternoon tea in Boao, and the resolute dedication of the port’s construction workers. Every picture narrated Qionghai’s story of enduring strength and elegant adaptation through the ages.

From its ancient fishing customs and Nanyang legacy to its current status as a dynamic free trade port, Qionghai’s narrative is now being shared globally with each mailed postcard. Every card carries a message from the South China Sea, reaching audiences around the world.

CONTACT: Culture and Tourism Department of Guizhou Province
May Mou
502428928@qq.com