Containers play a key role in the trade and economy of Hainan, the only free trade port on the Chinese mainland. And now, they have a cultural aspect as well. Unlike the containers of the past, which were just traditional means of transporting goods, in recent years, cargo wagons have turned trendy and changed a once messy corner in Haikou into a new travel destination.

Check out the Qiaozhongli Culture Street in Longhua District. All the stores and other buildings in this street sport containers, and the containers have been painted with characters from popular animation films, which is the main decorative theme of the street. The move has paid off and you see people flocking to the area to admire the ingenious transformation.

The Qiaozhongli Container Market

Photo/Li Hao

How did this idea develop? A Culture Street staff told us it started with a group of Hainan University art students who were interested in painting the street and giving it facelift. Some of them had already painted their campus walls and after getting the go-ahead from the authorities, they painted the containers using cheerful and arresting colors, red, yellow and blue.

The Qiaozhongli Container Market is a bustling place today. Its other attraction is the variety of mouth-watering street food that you can gorge on here, and coffee and cake shops.