Recently, Wuzhishan City, located in the heart of the Hainan, China's free trade port, received good news from its Chubao Village. The protective repair work on the local famous "boat-shaped house" complex is progressing well. By far, the roofs of 45 villagers' houses have been repaired, with the number expected to expand to 49 households by the end of August.

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Chubao Village locates deep within the rainforest of Wuzhishan, and is a traditional village for the Li ethnic group. The Li people are indigenous to Hainan Island, with a population exceeding 1.5 million.

About 850 years ago, the ancient Chinese book 'Guihai Yuheng Zhi' (Records of the Officer of the Land of Guangxi) recorded the "boat-shaped house" of the Li people. Living in the mountains and forests, the Li ancestors used readily available rainforest materials like wood, bamboo, and rattan to construct roofs with thatched coverings. The houses, looking like inverted wooden boats, was given the name "boat-shaped house".

The Publicity Department of Wuzhishan Municipal Committee introduces that these boat-shaped houses are moisture-proof, and provide excellent heat insulation. The inside, therefore, is warm in winter and cool in summer. They are also easy to dismantle and rebuild, reflecting the Li people's wisdom for surviving in the high-temperature, rainy tropical rainforest that has passed on for thousands of years. The American missionary Benjamin Couch Henry noted in his book Ling-Nam: Or Interior Views of Southern China, Including Explorations in the Hitherto Untraversed Island of Hainan that the spacious and airy boat-shaped houses contributed to the physical health of the Li people.

With the economic and social development in Hainan's ethnic areas, the once widespread boat-shaped houses in the island's mountainous rainforests have been gradually replaced by brick houses.

To preserve the building skills of the boat-shaped house, Hainan Province has organized numerous training courses. In 2022, the "Traditional Settlement of Li Ethnic Group" was officially on the Tentative List of World Heritage, and Chubao Village of Wuzhishan City was identified as a traditional village related to the Li people's history and culture within the nomination site. In 2023, Wuzhishan City launched a comprehensive repair project for the boat-shaped houses in Chubao Village.

In recent years, Chubao Village has attracted several tourism companies for feasibility study, as Wuzhishan City plans to develop the tourism industry around it. Dang Keqiang, the village cadre said, "Chubao Village has a stepped waterfall, the air here is very good, high in negative air oxygen ion, and people often come camping, filling the open space with cars." Villagers are enthusiastic about the influx of tourists. "Every family is very happy that tourists can come here," said Wang Yongyi, a Chubao Village resident.

Source: The Publicity Department of Wuzhishan Municipal Committee

Contact person: Ms. Wong, Tel: 86-10-63074558