WUZHISHAN, China, Aug. 06, 2024 — Wuzhishan City, located in the heart of Hainan, China’s free trade port, has received positive news from its Chubao Village. The ongoing protective repair work on the renowned “boat-shaped house” complex is progressing well. To date, the roofs of 45 villagers’ houses have been repaired, with the number expected to reach 49 households by the end of August.
Chubao Village is nestled deep within the rainforest of Wuzhishan and is a traditional village of the Li ethnic group, indigenous to Hainan Island with a population exceeding 1.5 million.
Around 850 years ago, the ancient Chinese book ‘Guihai Yuheng Zhi’ (Records of the Officer of the Land of Guangxi) documented the “boat-shaped houses” 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. These houses, resembling inverted wooden boats, were given the name “boat-shaped houses”.
The Publicity Department of Wuzhishan Municipal Committee explains that these boat-shaped houses are moisture-proof and provide excellent heat insulation. As a result, the interior remains 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 been passed down 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 houses, Hainan Province has organized numerous training courses. In 2022, the “Traditional Settlement of Li Ethnic Group” was officially placed on the Tentative List of World Heritage, and Chubao Village of Wuzhishan City was identified as a traditional village connected 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 studies, 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: Contact person: Ms. Wong, Tel: 86-10-63074558