Island Life: Irish photographer promotes Hainan to English-speaking world

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Hainan Province is the home of the Boao Forum. The island has been attracting more international visitors in recent years. But in the past, there was little English information about Hainan. CGTN's He Weiwei met an Irish photographer who lives there and promotes it to the English-speaking world.

"My name is Patrick Quinn, I'm from Ireland. I have been in Hainan for about 10 years. I'm a photographer. And when I came to Hainan first, I found that there was little information here on Hainan, so I started travelling around the island, taking photographs and writing about the people and places that I have met."

Patrick Quinn Photographer "I ran a website here called tropicalhainan.com; it promotes business and tourism in English."

"This one here is one of my favorites. This is Baishamen Park."

"I met Jake Canning probably one year ago, so both Jake and I are professional photographers."

"We get to see all of Hainan. We get to see the countryside, the villages, the local people, local food, local culture. We just finished doing a 9-day trip from Haikou, through Wuzhishan, all the way down to Yinggehai on the side west coast."

"The most interesting people that I have met here actually being when I got out of Haikou, getting into the countryside, we went to some really small villages that (is) a little bit inaccessible. We had dinner with them in the evening. But I think we were the first foreigners (who) actually ever go into that village. I was the first. It was a great experience."

My son was born in Hainan. It is important that as his father, I understand more about Hainan culture. My wife is local. She is from Hainan, so she can help and tell us a little bit about the places, say "Hey would you like to go there?"

Wu Hehua Patrick's wife "It's inspiring, and what he is doing is very meaningful. A westerner tries so hard to promote Hainan culture in English. I'm very proud of him. And he always has my support."

"Haikou has definitely become much more modern in the last 10 years. They have high-speed roads, high-speed trains. The infrastructure has been upgraded significantly."

"Hainan is attracting more and more international visitors. And I think that if it continues to change at this pace, I think the next 5 or 10 years it will be an exciting time for Hainan."