On a bright afternoon, we boarded a sightseeing helicopter and had a bird's-eye view of Haikou, a tropical coastal city, and a capital city that's developed quickly.

A bird's-eye view of Haikou, capital city of South China's Hainan province.[photo/Huang Yiming]

A bird's-eye view of Haikou, capital city of South China's Hainan province.[photo/Huang Yiming]

This capital city has witnessed drastic changes in the 27 years since the establishment of Hainan as a province—it has grown bigger; its buildings are higher, roads wider, and land greener…

A bird's-eye view of Haikou, capital city of South China's Hainan province.[photo/Huang Yiming]

As the helicopter flew forward, Haikou presented beautiful scenes absolutely different from the ones we are familiar with on the ground. For years, its economy has been growing rapidly by double digits, along with which are the increasingly higher buildings in the downtown, new neighborhoods and even wider roads…The endless succession of high-rises and the steady stream of passing vehicles on broad roads instantly dazzled us. They never matched the images of Haikou in our memory.

A bird's-eye view of Haikou, capital city of South China's Hainan province.[photo/Huang Yiming]

Haikou is an eco-tourism city with tropical seaside scenes and the charms of an island city. It not only has a "red forest," which is known as a sea forest, the volcanic wonder "Crater" and other rare natural landscapes, but also a number of famous historical and cultural places of interest like China's biggest arcade buildings block Haikou Qilou Street, Hairui Tomb and the Temple of the Five Lords. Coconut palms stretch along the tourism belt of the gold coast, dotted by golf courses, a sailing training base, Western Beach Park and the Holiday Beach. Integrating leisure, tourism, culture and entertainment, water sports and beach sports into one, it has become an ideal destination for domestic and foreign tourists to hold business conferences and to for vacations.

A bird's-eye view of Haikou, capital city of South China's Hainan province.[photo/Huang Yiming]

The most impressive thing about Haikou is itsblue and green. Amidst millions of buildings, there are coconut palms dotting the downtown and natural blue belts of the sea, stretching more than 100km from the west eastward. Along the coastline, the international five-star hotels and Hainan International Convention and Exhibition Center display their unique, cosmopolitan beauty.