Tunchang county

An aerial view of Tunchang county. [Photo/tunchang.hainan.gov.cn]

Tunchang is one of the six cities and counties in central Hainan. Located between the plains of the province's north and its mountainous region further south, the county has the only hilly terrain in the province and has been dubbed the doorway to Central Hainan. 

It is 70 kilometers away from the provincial capital of Haikou. Upon the completion of the Haikou-Tunchang Expressway, it will only take 45 minutes to drive between them. 

It covers an area of 1,231.5 square kilometers, including 1.3 million mu (867 sq km) of forest. Its forest coverage has reached 70.5 percent. The crops in the county include areca and rubber. It has planted 152,000 mu of areca, 89,000 mu of which will bear an annual output of 179,000 tons of areca nuts. The planting area of rubber is 785,000 mu, including 400,000 mu for harvest with an output of 34,400 tons. 

The forest is the top resource in Tunchang's agriculture and is a solid foundation for the county to improve the commercial forest industry and the under-forest economy. 

Xiangshan Fragrant Cultural Park [Photo/tunchang.hainan.gov.cn]

It is home to 10 minerals, such as crystal and molybdenum ore. The proven reserves of molybdenum are up to 1,600 tons. It is an important raw material for the metallurgical industry and aviation. Tunchang's reserves of granite are above 50 million cubic meters, ranking first in term of a recoverable provincial resource. The hot spring resources in the towns of Wupo and Xinxing are rich in sulfide and are an important hot springs resource in Hainan.

In 2022, Tunchang's economy maintained a steady growth, with a regional GDP of 10.14 billion yuan ($1.47 bilion), up 0.4 percent year-on-year.