Taking a leaf out of the book of nature

Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series of special reports in which our reporters will travel the length of China's 18,000-km-long coastline to detail the lives of the people whose existence is dominated, and often facilitated, by the waters that stretch from Bohai Bay in the north to the Zengmu shoal in the south.

Hainan province is one of China's most popular tourist destinations, but the authorities are facing a dilemma as they try to safeguard the mangrove forest that protects the island's fragile coastal ecosystem, as Peng Yining and Huang Yiming reports.

During the past year, Chen Song, deputy director of the Dongzhaigang Mangrove Forest Reserve in Hainan province, has devoted himself to improving public awareness of mangrove forests and shrubs, and the protection of endangered coastal flora. The problem is that Chen has been a little too successful, and the nature reserve now faces the prospect of turning visitors away.