Haikou is a tourist city on the Hainan Island in the South China Sea,
with a population that has grown from 25,000 to 2.3 million over the last four decades. As in many other parts of China, rapid urbanization has disregarded urban water infrastructure, and the Meishe River – literally “beautiful mother river” – has become a sewage dump and a neglected and lifeless place sadly famous for its
images of black waters, dead fish and dilapidated concrete banks broadcast by the national Central Television.