The city of Danzhou governs no districts at all, only towns, farms and a free-trade zone, yet it is Hainan’s largest city by land and its second economy, the place where the exiled poet Su Dongpo taught, and the port through which most of the island’s imports pass.
儋州下面没有一个区,只有镇、农场和一个自贸港园区,却是海南陆地面积最大的城市、全省第二大经济体,是流放的诗人苏东坡讲学的地方,也是全岛大部分进口货物进出的港口。
The town where the poet taught was later swept by Japanese troops.
诗人讲学的那个镇,后来遭到日军”扫荡”。
A Prefecture of Towns
全是镇的地级市
Danzhou’s history as an administrative unit starts early. The Han set up the Dan’er commandery here in 110 BCE, the first administrative unit on Hainan, according to the Yangpu government. The county was made a county-level city in 1993 and a prefecture-level city on 19 February 2015, the fourth in Hainan after Haikou, Sanya and Sansha, according to the Xzqh gazetteer and The Paper.
儋州作为行政区划起步很早。据洋浦经济开发区介绍,汉朝公元前一一零年在这里设儋耳郡,是海南最早的行政建制。据区划地名网和澎湃新闻介绍,儋州一九九三年设县级市,二零一五年二月十九日升为地级市,是继海口、三亚、三沙之后海南的第四个地级市。
The State Council’s approval abolished the county-level city and created the prefecture-level one on the same territory, with no districts below it, according to The Paper. At the time it governed 17 towns, four city-run farms and three industrial parks, over 3,400 square kilometres with 1.04 million people, the largest and most populous unit on the island, according to the same source. Today it has one subdistrict and 16 towns, and its main dialects are Danzhou speech, military speech and Hakka, according to Baidu Baike.
据澎湃新闻介绍,国务院批复撤销县级儋州市、在原辖区设立地级儋州市,下面不设区。据同一来源介绍,当时全市辖十七个镇、四个市属农场和三个工业园区,陆地面积三千四百平方公里,人口一百零四万,是海南面积最大、人口最多的市县。据百度百科介绍,如今辖一个街道、十六个镇,主要方言有儋州话、军话和客家话。
The railway is the odd part. Danzhou’s main town, Nada, is about 40 kilometres from the nearest high-speed station, so the second-biggest economy on the island is the only prefecture-level city whose urban core has no high-speed train, according to Tencent News in May 2026. A planned 72.7-kilometre line from Danzhou station through Nada and Wangwu to Yangpu Port station would bring trains into the city, according to the same source. Until then, trains from Haikou East reach Baimajing in as little as 51 minutes, according to Sohu.
铁路是个怪事。据腾讯新闻二零二六年五月报道,儋州主城区那大镇离最近的高铁站约四十公里,海南第二大经济体因此成了岛上唯一城区不通高铁的地级市。据同一来源介绍,规划中的一条七十二点七公里的铁路,将从现有儋州站经那大镇、王五镇通到洋浦港站,把高铁引进市区。据搜狐介绍,在此之前,从海口东站坐高铁到白马井站最快五十一分钟。
The Exile and the War
流放与战火
In 1097 Su Dongpo, then 62, was banished from Huizhou to Changhua army district, today’s Danzhou, and the court forbade him to eat official grain, live in official housing or sign official papers, according to Ctrip. A local scholar, Li Ziyun, and others raised money to build him a house on a slope east of town, which he called the Hall of Carrying Wine, and he taught there for more than three years, according to Ctrip and Baidu Baike. Hainan’s first successful provincial-level examination candidate was one of his students, according to Ctrip. The hall was renamed Dongpo Academy in 1548 and is now a national key protected site in Zhonghe town, according to Ctrip and Baidu Baike.
一零九七年,六十二岁的苏东坡从惠州被贬到昌化军,即今儋州,据携程介绍,朝廷禁止他吃官粮、住官舍、签书公事。据携程和百度百科介绍,当地读书人黎子云等人集资,在城东坡地为他盖了房子,他取名”载酒堂”,在那里讲学三年多。据携程介绍,海南历史上第一个举人是他的学生。据携程和百度百科介绍,载酒堂一五四八年改名东坡书院,如今是中和镇的全国重点文物保护单位。
In the same town the Japanese came. The army landed on 10 February 1939 near Haikou, according to the Hainan government, and Japanese troops repeatedly swept Qili village, in what is now Zhonghe town in Danzhou, and killed many villagers, according to the same source.
在同一个镇上,日军也来过。据海南省人民政府介绍,日军一九三九年二月十日在海口附近登陆,并多次”扫荡”当时属儋县、今属儋州市中和镇的七里村,杀害大量无辜村民。
The Gate and the Salt
港口与盐田
The gate is Yangpu. The State Council approved the zone in 1992 as China’s first national development zone developed in contiguous tracts by foreign investors and enjoying bonded-zone policies, with Deng Xiaoping’s personal instruction, according to the Yangpu government. It covers 114.78 square kilometres and about 100,000 people, according to the same source. Yangpu handles more than seven-tenths of the island’s imported cargo, according to China Central Television.
港口是洋浦。据洋浦经济开发区介绍,一九九二年国务院批准设立洋浦,它是我国第一个由外商成片开发、享受保税区政策的国家级经济技术开发区,邓小平亲自作了批示。据同一来源介绍,洋浦规划面积一百一十四点七八平方公里,总人口约十万。据央视介绍,洋浦承接了全岛超七成的进口货物量。
When Hainan began full island-wide customs closure on 18 December 2025, Yangpu became one of the eight ports of entry and one of the ten “second-line” ports, according to Xinhua. Between 18 December 2025 and 26 March 2026 its container throughput passed 1.03 million TEU, up 100 percent, according to the Yangpu Maritime Safety Administration.
据新华社介绍,二零二五年十二月十八日海南全岛封关运作,洋浦成为全岛八个对外开放口岸之一,也是十个”二线口岸”之一。据洋浦海事局介绍,二零二五年十二月十八日至二零二六年三月二十六日,洋浦港集装箱吞吐量超过一百零三万标箱,增长百分之一百。
In 2025 Danzhou’s GDP reached ¥103.03 billion, up 4.0 percent, with the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors at 16.5, 29.9 and 53.6 percent, and the resident population was 1,028,700, with a birth rate of 9.28 per thousand and a death rate of 6.16, according to the 2025 communiqué. The city received more than 12 million visitors, up 9 percent, who spent ¥10 billion, and it has won the national reward for pig-exporting counties for 20 years in a row, according to the city’s 2025 work report.
据二零二五年统计公报,二零二五年儋州生产总值一千零三十点三四亿元,增长百分之四点零,三次产业占比分别为百分之十六点五、二十九点九和五十三点六,常住人口一百零二万八千七百人,出生率千分之九点二八,死亡率千分之六点一六。据儋州市二零二五年工作报告,全年接待游客突破一千二百万人次,增长百分之九,旅游总消费一百亿元,而且连续二十年获得国家生猪调出大县奖励。
The older economy sits beside the port. In the Yangpu zone, the salt fields of Yantian village began when salt workers from Putian in Fujian came south and cut troughs from local volcanic rock, according to the Hainan government and China News Service. The Tan family has made salt there for 58 generations, according to China News Service. The 281.15-mu site, about 18.74 hectares, was listed as a national key protected site in 2013 and as national industrial heritage in 2024, according to the Hainan government. According to China News Service, the shore beside it is dotted with salt troughs shaped like inkstones, cut from black basalt.
老产业就在港口旁边。据海南省人民政府和中新网介绍,洋浦盐田村的盐田起于福建莆田的盐工南下,用当地火山岩凿成盐槽。据中新网介绍,谭家在那里晒盐已传了五十八代。据海南省人民政府介绍,盐田面积二百八十一点一五亩,约十八点七四公顷,二零一三年成为全国重点文物保护单位,二零二四年入选国家工业遗产。据中新网介绍,盐田旁边的海边,像砚台一样的黑色玄武岩晒盐槽星罗棋布。
