In the early morning, sunlight pierces the thin mist, tinting the horizon with a touch of carmine red. On the sea, a few fishing boats float, and waves gently lap against the hulls; couples stroll hand in hand on the soft sandy beach, while children chase the waves... These cinematic scenes are common sights in the Meilian Community of Yazhou District. The key visual poster of the 5th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) was shot on location here, and the central focus of the poster is also local children from Yazhou District. The poster design integrates Sanya elements, using waves, beaches, local students, and beautiful villages as background elements related to urban and film culture. It opens a magical and dreamlike door of light and shadow for the audience, and tells the story of Sanya's rural revitalization well.
Key Visual Poster of the 5th HIIFF
A Small Fishing Village Undergoes a Major Transformation
In recent years, Sanya has concentrated resources on upgrading the construction of beautiful villages, creating a "Sanya model" for rural revitalization that is suitable for living, working, and traveling. This has boosted the development of Sanya's rural revitalization, yielding one fruitful result after another and successively building a batch of uniquely charming beautiful village demonstration areas, among which Meilian Community is one. At present, by striving to tap into "beautiful resources", develop "beautiful industries", leverage "beautiful economies", and shape "beautiful rural customs", Meilian Village has painted a picturesque scene of beautiful villages, thriving industries, and prosperous people. Meilian Community is a microcosm of Sanya's creation of a rural revitalization model, and it also uses light and shadow to write the striving story of Sanya forging ahead to build a new benchmark for the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
As a "rising star" among Sanya's beautiful villages, Meilian Community tells its story to people just like a movie. Meilian Community, originally known as Jiaotou Village, is located by Jiaotou Bay in Yazhou District, with a coastline stretching 7 kilometers. The seawater is clear, the sand is fine, and it boasts a pleasant climate and uniquely endowed beach resources.
Relying on natural resources to seek efficiency from industries. In recent years, taking the three-year action for the construction and management improvement of beautiful villages as a starting point, Yazhou District has focused on building 11 municipal and district-level beautiful village demonstration communities, including Meilian Community, and carried out projects to shore up weaknesses in infrastructure, making the beautiful village environment a scenic highlight. The construction of beautiful villages has leveraged the rapid development of the local "beautiful economy". Meilian Community, once a small fishing village, has gradually forged a rural revitalization path of "nurturing the sea and enriching the sea" through diversified explorations in the integration of culture and tourism.
Aerial view of Meilian Community.
"In the past, villagers all relied on fishing to make a living. They only cared about how many fish they could catch from the sea, and nobody paid any attention to marine environmental protection." Gan Shilong, a fisherman in Meilian Community, felt this deeply. He said that for a long time, the villagers here had made a living by fishing for generations, and their environmental awareness was rather weak. To increase their income, fishermen overexploited marine resources and used incorrect fishing methods, which also caused a certain degree of damage to the environment of Meilian Community.
"If we want things to get better, we must first carry out ecological environment governance," said Gui Wanguang, Party Branch Secretary of Meilian Community. To this end, Meilian Community launched an ecological restoration project for the coastal zone. After taking a series of remediation measures, the village's environmental protection work achieved initial results. Subsequently, Meilian Community further improved infrastructure construction such as community sewage discharge, power grids, and road hardening, thereby improving the living environment of the villagers. Today, in Meilian Community, the hardened cement roads are clean and tidy, trees provide shade along the village roads and around the houses, the seawater is azure, the sea sand is fine and soft, a fresh rural breeze greets the face, and the villagers' sense of happiness and gain has been greatly enhanced.
Aerial view of Meilian Community.
Monetizing Resource Advantages
Colorful windmills rotate in the wind, vivid ocean murals appear before your eyes, bougainvillea and firecracker vines bloom vibrantly in front of and behind the houses, and sculptures that occasionally appear along the village roads attract people to stop and take photos...
After the improvement of its village appearance, Meilian Community has welcomed numerous tourists. The formerly small fishing village has stepped onto a path of beautiful village development that "nurtures the sea and enriches the sea".
With the environment improved, industries must keep pace. Relying on its unique natural environment advantages, Meilian Community has developed ecological wellness tourism. With the improvement of community residents' environmental awareness, environmental remediation, infrastructure construction, and the development of the internet, Meilian Community has opened over 100 seaside homestays and utilized its 7-kilometer coastline to build observation decks.
Students from Meishan Primary School participate in the shooting of the key visual poster for this year's film festival at Jiaotou Bay, Meilian Community.
"The environment here is so beautiful; we have come here to spend the winter for the past few years," said Gao āyí, a seasonal elderly resident. According to Sun Zhuqiong, Chairwoman of the Women's Federation of Meilian Community, in recent years, Meilian Community has attracted many seasonal elderly residents to rent houses and spend the winter there thanks to its unique environmental resources. The Meilian Community Neighborhood Committee seized the development opportunity, introduced the concept of ecological wellness tourism, and encouraged community residents to use their vacant rooms to create distinctive homestays. Local villagers seized the opportunity and developed multi-tiered homestay formats such as "homestay + wellness" and "homestay + tourism", providing a high-quality, experience-focused, and meaningful living environment. In addition to villagers building and renting out their own houses, some tourism enterprises also rent villagers' houses to operate homestays.
Qiuju Tavern, bookhouses, homestays... Today, the industries in Meilian Community are blossoming in multiple directions. Furthermore, through distinctive cultural activities such as fishing harvest festivals and sculpture art exhibitions, it has built four core industrial systems—cultural and artistic industries, leisure and entertainment industries, service support industries, and brand added value—empowering and adding wings to rural revitalization.
"Now many young people come here to take wedding photos, and many photographers come here to capture the scenery. I believe Meilian Community will become known to more and more people, which will further drive the development of the tourism industry," said Sun Zhuqiong. The fact that the poster of this year's film festival was shot on location in Meilian Community also shows that the cultural and scenic beauty here has gained a certain level of recognition. This will spur community officials to strive for higher goals and enable the villagers to live a better life.
"I love the sea, sunshine, and beaches, and I am very glad to participate in the shooting of this year's film festival poster," said Wu Yuhan, a student from Meishan Primary School.
The key visual poster of this film festival was shot in Meilian Community, Yazhou District. Local children became the protagonists of the poster. This marks the first time that a Hainan local village and children have appeared on the key visual poster of an international film festival, and it also represents a deep integration of local customs and culture with the film festival.
"I am honored to be a protagonist on the film festival poster. I welcome filmmakers from all over the country to visit our hometown for tourism and film shooting," said Chen Renyun, a student from Meishan Primary School.
Source: Sanya Convergence Media Reporter Zhang Huibin / Text, Li Xueshi / Photo
Editor: Li Jingchao
