HAIKOU, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- In the heart of Xinglong's coffee culture park, the aroma of roasting beans fills the air as barista Liang Dongru stands over her roaster, eyes focused and movements steady.
"The key is low heat and slow roasting," she said. "In the process, we add butter, white sugar and a little salt, which makes the coffee taste more mellow, rich and smooth."
Xinglong, known as the Xinglong Overseas Chinese Tourism Economic Zone, sits in Hainan, China's southernmost island province. Under the jurisdiction of Wanning City, it has settled generations of returned overseas Chinese and their families since the 1950s.
Those returning compatriots brought back both coffee plants and roasting know-how, fostering coffee cultivation and processing in Xinglong ever since.
Made from locally grown Robusta beans and roasted with butter, sugar and a pinch of salt, Xinglong coffee offers a classic flavor that is both bold and aromatic.
"It's amazing that Xinglong's local annual per-capita coffee consumption has surpassed 200 cups, while the national average is just over 20 cups," said Ye Jian, head of the Xinglong Coffee Industry Association and general manager of CP (Hainan) Xinglong Coffee Industrial Development Co., Ltd.
Coffee, an unconventional beverage for most Chinese before the country's opening-up nearly five decades ago, has grown in popularity since then, with Nestle, one of the biggest coffee companies in the world, introducing instant coffee in the 1980s.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, international coffee chains like Starbucks and Costa Coffee entered the Chinese market, introducing a new wave of coffee culture.
The country's coffee industry scale reached 354.9 billion yuan (about 52.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 13.3 percent year on year, with annual per-capita consumption rising to 28.57 cups, according to industry reports.
As a core Robusta-growing region in China, Wanning has in recent years built a comprehensive coffee industry chain, integrating cultivation, processing, e-commerce, local culture and tourism.
As a result, Xinglong coffee has become more than just a beverage -- it is now a cultural symbol of Hainan.
Since 2021, Wanning has been cultivating "Xinglong Barista," with a growing number of young people taking up coffee-making as a career. By July this year, the city has trained 2,476 professionals for the coffee industry.
A large number of practitioners from China's Belt and Road Initiative partner countries have also come to the tropical town to learn about breeding and cultivation techniques for crops such as coffee, pepper and cocoa.
Last December, an international coffee trading and operations center was inaugurated in Xinglong, leveraging the Hainan Free Trade Port's tariff exemption policies.
"Xinglong coffee continues to attract attention from around the world," Ye said. "With more partners, we will advance international cooperation in coffee bean trade and coffee culture exchanges." ■
