HAIKOU: China started ferrying trains on ships on Tuesday, the day that will always be remembered by locals across southern Qiongzhou Strait and railway builders.

On that day, China's first maritime rail link crossed the Qiongzhou Strait when the Guangdong-Hainan Railway opened to traffic between the rapidly booming Guangdong Province and its island neighbour of Hainan Province.

It awoke the prosperous dreams cherished by 8 million Hainan residents in the strategic but remote island of 35,000 square kilometres with a marine area of 2 million square kilometres and a coastline of 1,500 kilometres.

The scenic tropical island's resources may be further tapped since the railway can nearly triple Hainan's marine transport capacity, according to statistics from local railway departments.

Hainan Island joined China's first batch of special economic zones in the 1980s and ranks as the largest zone in size. It boasts plentiful tropical and coastal tourism resources, vivid and colourful ethnic cultures, substantial iron ore reserves and tropical and subtropical agriculture.

Lack of access to the outside world has been a barrier to the island's development. Expensive air flights or cheap but time-consuming travel by train and then ferry unnerved many tourists.

A survey shows nearly 75 per cent of residents in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou want to go sightseeing in Hainan, says Wang Jiansheng, secretary-general of the Hainan Provincial Tourist Association.

The railway will enable more medium or low income tourists to visit the tropical island, Wang said.

The cross-strait railway is also expected to help close the gap between the relatively slowly developing island and the booming cities of China's eastern coastal areas, whose ports provide them with ready access to export markets. Officials see the railway as a key tool in spreading prosperity by cutting the cost of exporting goods from the island and attracting investors from outside.

Compared to a tunnel under the strait, the rail-ferry system has disadvantages, including a limited transport capacity and dependence on weather conditions. The ferries can operate only in winds of less than gale-force eight, says Du Huirong, deputy general manager of the Guangdong-Hainan Railway Corporation. But it was the most feasible way to meet the country's transportation needs while saving on costs, Du said.