Airports will make residents' lives easier

Seeing is believing. Recent visits to the Xisha and Nansha islands have impressed on me how the inconvenience of transportation has made island dwellers careful to avoid accidental injury and acute serious illness.

"We can't afford to take such a long boat trip of nearly two days to return to Hainan Island for such serious conditions," one local resident said.

Medical services are sometimes limited. Even to fight a potential cold, some residents of remote islets don't miss a chance to buy more medicine if they drop by a hospital on the bigger islands, simply because their reserves might prove insufficient.