Danzhou

An aerial view of Danzhou's urban area. [Photo/www.danzhou.gov.cn]

The city of Danzhou, first formed in 110 BC, historically named as Dan'er county, is one of the two ancient counties in Hainan Island. It is located in the northwest of Hainan Island, adjacent to the Beibu Gulf. 

The city covers a land area of 3,398 square kilometers and a coastline of 307 kilometers, and its population is 1,078,100 by the end of 2022. A total of 16 towns and four state-owned farms are under Danzhou's jurisdiction. 

Danzhou is located at the core area where Hainan's modern new industries are developed. The remarkable state-level development zone - Yangpu Economic Development Zone, the country's fourth bonded port - Yangpu Bonded Harbor Area, and the Hainan University Danzhou campus and the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture, are located in the territory.  Among them, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture is affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It is the only national comprehensive tropical scientific research institution in China, and was named a Reference Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Training by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Dongpo Academy. [Photo/www.danzhou.gov.cn]

Ancient Danzhou had profound cultural background and powerful cultural quality. Nurtured by history and culture, many Danzhou people can chant poems, write couplets, and sing and dance. Danzhou was dubbed as "the Poetry Village", "the Chinese Couplets Town", and "China's Rural Folk Art". 

Danzhou has a long history, but also an abundance of natural resources, including reserves of quartz sands, oil shale, granite, lignite, clay and other minerals. With excellent water quality and many bays, Danzhou has become a ground producing sea cucumber, red snapper, squid, Greenfield bighead fish, squid, grouper, shrimp and other aquatic products. Thanks to its suitable climate, Danzhou is renowned for its tropical fruits, such as banana, lychee, jackfruit, and dragon fruit.

Yangpu economic development zone. [Photo/IC]

Danzhou has a tropical oceanic monsoon climate, its average annual temperature is 23.1 C, average annual rainfall is 1823 mm, and less influenced by tropical storms and typhoons. The city's forest resources cover an area of 2.81 million mu (187,300 hectares), and its forest coverage rate is 54.7 percent. In 2017, Danzhou was selected as a National Garden City.

Danzhou is an excellent tourist city that boasts an abundance of tourism resources. Tourist attractions such as the Dongpo Academy, the Songtao Reservoir, the Bayi Water Tunnel, the Hainan Tropical Botanical Garden, the Lanyang Cold and Hot Spring, the Guangcun Silver Beach, the Millennium Ancient salt fields, the Egrets Heaven, and the Cigar-Style Town are all inviting and indulging.

In 2022, Danzhou's GDP reached 87.9 billion yuan ($12.8 billion). The total retail sales of social consumer goods amounted to 11.9 billion yuan, a decrease of 9.4 percent over the previous year. The total import and export volume of goods was 95.18 billion yuan. Throughout the year, the per capita disposable income of permanent residents was 28,843 yuan, an increase of 1.2 percent over the previous year.