In the latest episode of China Daily’s Youth Power, which aired on June 30, Jan Kerekes, a Canadian who has lived in South China’s Hainan province for six years, shared what led him to settle down here.
“Hainan is really opening up. The whole world comes here, and you see the opportunities right in front of you,” Kerekes said. “It is a place where you can pursue your dreams.”
Now a teacher at Hainan University, Andreev Aleksei, a 30-year-old Russian, found Kerekes’s story particularly resonant.
“When I went back to my country, I missed the island so much that I had to come back,” Aleksei said. “Hainan not only hosts the Boao Forum for Asia but it is also the best place for windsurfing and parachuting.”
To encourage international talent to come, Hainan has introduced 16 measures to streamline living and working conditions for foreigners.
For example, Aleksei mentioned that Hainan offers numerous benefits and advantageous policies to assist global talents in establishing businesses in the region.
“[The application process] takes just three days, and it can be completed entirely online, even for foreigners,” he said.
The young guests visited the Haikou Municipal Government Service Center to learn more about these measures. There, they met people from around the world with different needs — whether for visas, education, or business.
“I think it’s a testament to the inclusivity of the entire province,” said Jood Ghazwan Sharaf, a 27-year-old Bulgarian student at Tsinghua University.
Dylan Walker, 27, from the United States, was impressed by the efficiency of the “one window for all” system.
“It’s like a one-stop service,” he said. “You don’t have to run all over the place.”
In addition to aiding tourists and residents in their daily lives and business activities, Hainan has made significant economic progress.
One notable example is the Yangpu Economic Development Zone, which has evolved from a small port into Hainan’s largest international port.
In the zone, the young guests explored the Yangpu Offshore Wind Power Industrial Park, where they discovered Hainan’s commitment to developing its marine economy and striving for a harmonious coexistence with the ocean.
According to Lin Qingsong, the park’s general manager, while Hainan’s wind power utilization is still in its early stages, this project stands out as a pioneering model for future large-scale offshore wind power initiatives.
“We can see that China is not an economy that goes within itself. It goes outward to benefit the rest of humanity,” Sharaf said, impressed by China’s innovative economic experiments.
As a global resident of Hainan, Aleksei believes that this island is not only a dynamic free trade model but also a natural paradise that strikes a balance between work and leisure.
“This is quite a unique place in China,” Aleksei said. “No matter what purpose brings you here, whether it’s tourism, starting a business, or work, just come here, and you will fall in love with it.”
