The rise of an aerospace town has ignited new hopes for Wenchang to step beyond Hainan and onto the global stage.

This town, dedicated to aerospace, carries both the innovative mission of national strategic projects and the aspirations for glory and a better future held by the local residents of Wenchang. It is encouraging that in recent years, when discussing Hainan with colleagues, clients, and partners, more people are familiar with Wenchang; and conversations about Wenchang now naturally bring to mind rocket launches. National strategy has endowed this once low-key ancient hometown of overseas Chinese with epochal significance, a development that evokes genuine pride. My hometown has been energized by the aerospace industry, gaining visibility, recognition, and appeal because of it. Since 2024, the Wenchang Commercial Aerospace Launch Site has set records with its rapid development pace. Following the maiden flight of the Long March 12 on November 30, 2024, it has achieved a perfect track record of ten successful launches. The Long March 8A rocket has made frequent appearances, undertaking multiple low-orbit satellite network missions in the latter half of 2025, demonstrating a robust capability for "7-day launch preparation and 7-day site recovery." Most recently, on February 11, 2026, the low-altitude flight test of the Long March 10 series rocket concluded successfully. The site features a rocket reuse factory enabling "launch upon arrival" and hosts Asia's largest satellite assembly, integration, and testing base, injecting vigorous momentum into the aerospace industry chain.

The local aerospace sector is driving the aggregation of the entire commercial aerospace chain, led by these major national projects. The Wenchang Space Launch Site began construction in Longlou Town in 2009, with the first Long March 7 launch in 2016 reshaping the destiny of my hometown, intertwining it closely with China's space endeavors. Over the past decade, the area has deeply integrated into the development of the commercial launch site and the Wenchang International Aerospace City, establishing an industrial ecosystem where the "rocket chain, satellite chain, and data chain" develop synergistically. This has attracted nearly 3,000 companies, including over 700 aerospace-related enterprises. Leading private firms like i-Space and Space Tianbing collaborate deeply with state-owned entities such as the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, forming a closed-loop ecosystem spanning rocket assembly, satellite manufacturing, and data application. In 2025, i-Space announced plans for its Hyperbola-3 rocket to achieve "orbit insertion + maritime recovery," targeting an annual production capacity of 6-12 launches. A satellite super factory is nearing operational status, with an expected annual output of a thousand satellites, potentially driving the scale of related upstream and downstream industries to over 500 billion yuan.

The rise of the aerospace industry has not only fueled a tourism boom centered around "chasing rocket launches" but also allows local residents to witness the ascent of the space industry right at their doorstep. Longlou Town in Wenchang is gradually transforming from a coastal fishing village into an aerospace hub. Over ten years, propelled by the aerospace sector, the town's industrial structure has shifted from traditional fishing to a diversified model incorporating "aerospace + culture & tourism + services." According to Wenchang statistics, before the first rocket launch in 2016, Longlou had only about five homestays; now, there are over sixty. In 2025, the local hospitality and catering sectors hosted over 400,000 tourists, generating tourism revenue of 60 million yuan, with hotel occupancy rates exceeding 90% during launch periods. An interesting recent phenomenon is neighbors building viewing platforms on their rooftops, spontaneously creating income opportunities—a tangible benefit of aerospace development for local livelihoods. Walking through the streets, from road signs and storefronts to educational bases and themed accommodations, the traditional imprint of fishing and farming is increasingly illuminated by aerospace, adding to ordinary lives the hope of increased household income and the confidence to strive for collective progress.

As someone who usually lives in Shanghai, returning for the Lunar New Year and seeing the crowds also brought an awareness of areas needing improvement. The key challenge is converting the "aerospace dividend" from transient visitor flow into lasting retention—ensuring the area can handle peak demand, maintain vibrancy daily, and retain talent—which is essential for sustainable development. First, surrounding配套设施 and services remain limited. Despite the surge in homestays and hotels, Longlou lacks integrated commercial districts (e.g., large shopping malls, mid-to-high-end hotels) and standardized management (e.g., traffic control during peaks, integrated urban-industrial reception capacity). Gaps are evident both in providing systematic, immersive cultural experiences for post-launch tourists and in municipal infrastructure. Second, standard ticket prices for educational tours are prohibitive for many locals. Tickets for the commercial launch site cost 199 yuan per person, while the Yaoguang viewing platform charges nearly 400 yuan, with closer露天 viewing spots being even more expensive. A core intention of building an aerospace town should be giving locals a natural advantage to understand aerospace better and enhance awareness of China's space program, but high ticket prices dampen participation. Establishing a reasonable, effective tiered pricing mechanism is urgently needed. Third, financial support within the town needs strengthening. During peak seasons and holidays, some bank ATMs face cash shortages, and there is significant room for improvement in branch operational efficiency, the quality of customer service, and the breadth of identifying potential client needs in this era of the aerospace town's ascent.

Observations on the ground may not fully capture the underlying sentiment: consumer vitality evident in bustling scenes and competitive deposit pricing. Visiting local streets, "Fuchatea" establishments operating through the Spring Festival holiday remain quintessential local scenes: packed with customers, exuding vibrancy, yet the experience can feel contradictory. Wenchang's Fuchatea culture is a deep fusion of returned overseas Chinese culture and local life, a lifestyle ingrained in every Wenchang native from childhood. During holidays, meeting school friends or teachers at a Fuchatea shop for conversation is a way to relax and reconnect with the local ethos of contentment. This Spring Festival, many Fuchatea shops in Wenchang remained open, with established names like Longhua Tea Shop and Qingxing Tea Garden packed from morning till night, long queues at serving windows, and popular local snacks selling out, reflecting robust grassroots consumption. Seeing the crowded tables is pleasing, indicating willingness to try and spend, but prompts reflection on enhancing the experience for tourists and locals alike. 1) Could numbered queuing systems be implemented to manage the scarcity of seats? 2) Could systematic training and staff categorization address service shortages? 3) The trend of "fast-food" style visits by tourists, who eat and leave quickly, seems to be encroaching on the leisurely, chat-focused Fuchatea culture. Preserving the essence of this "slow living" culture while maintaining its lively atmosphere requires careful thought.

After enjoying Fuchatea and local snacks, a stroll through town drew attention to bank branches. As a banking analyst, seeing bank logos or passing branches naturally invites pause. For instance, Hainan Rural Commercial Bank offers a 1-year deposit rate of 1.47% for 200,000 yuan and 1.55% for 2 million yuan. Xingfu Village Bank offers an even higher 1-year time deposit rate of 1.65%. Compared to the approximate 1% 1-year listed rate at major state-owned banks, these are attractive for locals. Casually asking a local shop owner if they would move savings to higher-rate banks elicited a typical response: uncertainty about the safety of smaller banks and fear of potential loss. This highlights that in more regional areas, smaller local banks, acting as financial capillaries, possess core competitiveness in product pricing. However, gaining acceptance and trust from locals, especially in areas long served primarily by state-owned banks, requires these smaller institutions to offer warmer, more personalized service, leverage local advantages (in products, efficiency), and provide flexible financial support. Naturally, for the banks themselves, risk management remains paramount, followed by balancing pricing on both asset and liability sides. Particularly in a low-interest-rate environment, attracting deposits with high premiums could squeeze already declining net interest margins, potentially weakening banks' capacity to sustainably support the real economy.

Across Hainan province, local financial institutions currently show limited appetite for scale expansion, reflecting both subdued demand and a focus on structural adjustment. By the end of 2025, total credit from Hainan's financial institutions was approximately 1.4 trillion yuan, with a CAGR during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period nearly 1 percentage point slower than the national average. Typical local institutions, like Bank of Hainan, have seen slowing credit growth since the start of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and show no strong scale ambitions for the next phase, indicating that local financial vitality remains insufficient. Wenchang City, a representative county-level economy in Hainan, had loan and deposit balances of approximately 28.3 billion yuan and 58.6 billion yuan respectively in 2025. The relatively low loan-to-deposit ratio suggests significant potential for increased credit allocation as the aerospace industry grows and consumer demand picks up.

Moving beyond "price advantage" to building "ecosystem advantage," local banks must develop distinctive features and achieve a "small but beautiful" model. With the countdown to the full customs closure operation of the Hainan Free Trade Port and the normalization of rocket launches, local banks in Wenchang have three key opportunities riding the development wave: First, replace "price competition" with "industry depth." Drawing from tech finance models, they could explore designing products like "aerospace equipment finance leasing" or "satellite data pledge loans" tailored to the aerospace chain, optimizing asset-side pricing. Second, use "scenario penetration" to break "branch dependency." For example, integrating financial services into famous scenic spots within the Wenchang Aerospace City (e.g., payments, wealth management) through "smart + credit" models and launching unique supply chain finance products can synergize liabilities and assets. Third, activate "service dynamism" through "mechanism innovation." This core involves enhancing service precision and motivating relationship managers by tailoring external processes for efficiency and implementing internal incentives and assessments, perhaps through performance competitions. When local banks transition from passive "waiting for business" to proactive "seeking business," and from competing on "interest rates" to competing on "ecosystem," they can truly convert the aerospace dividend into financial vitality, achieving the breakthrough of "small banks serving large industries."