Wenchang — rockets among coconut palms

A launch site on the beach

Standing on the beach at Longlou, at first glance you see a completely ordinary Hainan coast: coconut palms, fishing boats, a few hotels. Only at second glance do you notice the pale towers rising above the palms a few kilometres away. That's where the launch pads of China's newest and most modern spaceport stand.

Wenchang is the country's first launch site right on the sea. The three older ones lie deep inland: Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert, Taiyuan in the north and Xichang in the mountains of the south-west. Here, by contrast, the rockets fly over the beach and out over the open sea.

Why here of all places

The first reason is latitude. Wenchang lies at around 19 degrees north and so much closer to the equator than the older launch sites. The closer to the equator, the faster the earth's surface rotates, and a rocket takes that momentum with it at launch. At the equator the ground moves east at about 1,670 kilometres per hour, in Wenchang at a good 1,570, in Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert only about 1,260. A rocket doesn't have to make up this difference itself, which saves fuel. According to Chinese figures, the same rocket can carry about ten to fifteen per cent more payload into orbit from here.

The second reason is direction. From here rockets fly east and south over the open sea, and burnt-out stages fall into the water. At the inland sites they come down over inhabited areas, and pictures of crashed rocket parts next to villages are not a rare sight in China.

The third reason is the most mundane: the big Long March 5 rockets are five metres in diameter. They don't fit through any railway tunnel. So they're built in Tianjin and shipped to Hainan, into Qinglan port near the launch site.

An idea from the 1970s

Hainan was already on the list of possible sites in the 1970s, as one of the best. Back then, because of the uncertain international situation — a coast is considered militarily vulnerable — Xichang in the mountains was chosen. Hainan remained just a test site for smaller sounding rockets.

Only in 2007 did the State Council and the Central Military Commission approve building a new launch site in Wenchang; work began in 2009. The first rocket, a Long March 7, lifted off on 25 June 2016, and the first Long March 5 on 3 November the same year. The site is still operated by the military today.

The biggest hall, the biggest door

The rockets are assembled standing upright here, in huge assembly halls. The hall for the Long March 5 is 101 metres high; its door measures 81 metres and counts as one of the largest in Asia. From there the finished rocket travels upright on a platform along a rail track to the launch pad, about 2.8 kilometres, at walking pace.

This journey is one of the most beautiful moments before a launch. When a mission is coming up, Chinese media show pictures of the rocket rolling between the palms to the pad — the launch follows a few days later.

Not everything succeeds

The launch site's history isn't only a success story. In July 2017 the second flight of the Long March 5 failed; the rocket didn't reach its orbit. It took almost two and a half years before it flew again in December 2019. Without this rocket China's big plans for the moon, Mars and a space station were blocked for months.

There were setbacks later too: in August 2026 a communications satellite was lost on a launch from here because the rocket failed. Spaceflight remains risky, and China deals with such failures more openly today than it used to — the announcement came quickly and without glossing over anything.

What launched from here

China's best-known missions of recent years flew from Wenchang: in 2020 the Mars probe Tianwen-1, which landed a rover on Mars a year later, and the lunar mission Chang'e 5, which brought moon rock back to earth for the first time since the 1970s. In 2021 came the core module of the Tiangong space station, in 2024 Chang'e 6, the first mission ever to bring back samples from the far side of the moon. The cargo ships supplying the space station also launch regularly from here.

In August 2026 the rocket for Chang'e 7 was ready here, a mission to the moon's south pole, where scientists are looking for water ice in permanently dark craters. It consists of four parts: an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a small flying probe meant to hop into the dark craters. And since 2024 another launch pad has been under construction on the site: for the rocket with which China wants to put people on the moon by 2030.

What comes down

The coastal advantage applies to the lower stages, which fall into the water shortly after launch. More controversial was a variant of the big rocket built for the space station. Its huge core stage itself reached orbit and later crashed back to earth uncontrolled. In 2020 debris fell on villages in Côte d'Ivoire, and NASA sharply criticised China several times.

China pointed out that the risk was small and that most parts burned up. The debate shows that spaceflight from Wenchang doesn't concern Hainan alone. For visitors, regardless: anyone here on a launch day experiences an exclusion zone reaching far out to sea.

Next door: the first commercial launch site

A little further south, near Dongjiao with its coconut forest, a second launch site has existed since 2024: China's first commercial rocket launch site. It was built from July 2022 in less than two and a half years. The first rocket lifted off there on 30 November 2024; there are now two pads, and two more are under construction.

From here mainly rockets launch that carry whole batches of satellites for new internet constellations into space, similar to Starlink in the USA. Together the two sites are soon to manage several dozen launches a year. This is part of the Hainan free trade zone too: the island wants to be a spaceflight location, not just a shopping one, and a whole “space town” with hotels and viewing platforms is growing around Longlou.

What foreigners can see — and what not

Here's the restriction. Tours of the launch site, by electric bus to the assembly hall and launch pad, are according to the operators offered only to citizens of the People's Republic — not to foreigners, nor to visitors from Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan. It's a military site, and mobile phones are banned there anyway.

Freely accessible is the space science centre at the entrance, with models, exhibitions and simulators. Whether foreign passports are accepted there without problems should be checked in advance. And above all the view of the towers from the surrounding beaches is free: from Qishui beach they're only a few kilometres away.

Experiencing a launch

If you're lucky enough to be here when a rocket launches, you'll witness one of China's most impressive spectacles: first a point of light, then a rumble you feel in your stomach, finally a pillar of fire disappearing into the sky within a few minutes. Many launches take place at night, and the whole coast lights up. The sound always arrives a few seconds after the light — at four kilometres about twelve seconds, so you see the rocket rising before you hear it.

Dates are usually only announced at short notice and often slip by hours or days. You can watch for free at Qishui beach, Longlou beach and other official viewpoints. There are also paid stands about 3.5 to 4 kilometres from the pads, for about 368 yuan. On launch days the area is packed, roads are closed, hotels are fully booked, and you should be there hours in advance.

How to approach the day

In the afternoon visit the science centre, then go to the beach, where you see the towers in the evening light. From the hotel in Longlou each is only a few minutes away. For a better overview, go up Tongguling hill near Longlou, the highest point on this stretch of coast: from the top you see “Moon Bay” at your feet and the launch site in the distance. The viewpoint charges admission and is open until late afternoon.

A few days before arrival it's worth checking the launch dates, for example on Chinese spaceflight sites or with the hotel's help. If a launch falls during your stay, that's a reason to plan everything around it.