IMAGINE treading on soft sand with the sound of waves echoing in your ears, while watching a spacecraft shoot into space, leaving an arc in the azure sky.

No sci-fi fantasy, this very experience awaits visitors to Longlou, a “space town” in the coastal city of Wenchang, South China’s Hainan Province. It is emerging as a must-see for all arrivals to the resort island of Hainan as China’s space program picks up steam.

The town came under the spotlight once again last week as China launched its first Mars mission here at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site.

Tens of thousands of tourists have flocked to this former fishing town’s several open-view sites to witness the historic moment.

The Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site saw its maiden rocket launch in 2016 and has completed several launch missions since then, including the launches of the Long March-7 and Long March-5 rockets.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, its space theme has attracted tourists from across the country, which brought an instant boom to the economy of Longlou, home to 25,000 permanent residents. There are currently more than 30 hotels and dozens of guesthouses scattered across the town, whose rooms were fully booked before the latest rocket launch, according to the local government.

Booming tourism is now the main economic driver of Longlou. Tourism revenue contributed more than 70 percent of the town’s GDP, which increased from 143 million yuan (US$20.4 million) in 2009 to more than 3.5 billion yuan in 2019, according to data from the local government. Meanwhile, annual per capita disposable income has risen to 16,514 yuan in 2019 from 5,559 yuan 10 years ago.