China started constructing the country's first commercial spacecraft launch site in Wenchang City, south China's island province of Hainan, on Wednesday.

The Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site aims to become a world-class and market-oriented launch site, further improving China's capability of launching commercial carrier rockets.

Hainan is expected to make full use of the synergistic advantage of the launch site and policies of the free trade port to build Wenchang into a top-ranking international space city, said Feng Fei, governor of Hainan.

There is already a national satellite launch site for official use in Wenchang, the fourth in China. It is often used for launching the Long March series of rockets carrying Earth-orbiting satellites, modules of a space station and satellites for deep space.

Its recent launch was sending off the Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft to the China Space Station in May. In late July, lab module Wentian will be sent to the space station at the site.

The southern Chinese city of Wenchang was selected to build a satellite launch site as it is located at the region's low latitude, about 19 degrees north of the equator. Its location allows for an increase in the payload for rocket launches.

(With input from Xinhua)