The Mangrove Forest in the eye of a Finnish photographer

The Mangrove Forest in Haikou is a charming place, with its beautiful environment, fresh air, appetizing seafood and simple and honest people in the surrounding countryside. Being China's first mangrove protected area, it has attracted a vast number of domestic and foreign tourists with its great ecology, and is absolutely one of the most attractive places in Haikou. Kirmo Wilen, a photographer from Finland, is one of them and deeply loves the area.

Kirmo Wilen, a photographer from Finland, poses with his Chinese 'grandma' in Xinhui village, Haikou, South China's Hainan province.

Kirmo Wilen, a photographer from Finland, shows an album of pictures he's taken during his stay in Haikou, South China's Hainan province.

Since 2007, Kirmo Wilen has frequently visited and become strongly interested in the villages in Haikou. For him, downtown Haikou is nothing special, it's like any another metropolis. It was not until he saw the villages in the suburbs of Haikou that he became enchanted by the better preserved environment and unique ways of life. As an amateur photographer, everything here stimulates his desire for creation.

Through the years he recorded the changes to the countryside around Haikou with his camera. He said, "The living environment here has changed a lot. The coastal areas of Xinhui Village used to be bare sea, but now they are planted with mangrove trees that have become a small forest. I see many newly-built houses in very different architectural styles. The development of Haikou makes the city more and more internationalized. With more and more international signs, it looks no different from any another city in the world—the same cars, the same restaurants, McDonald's and KFC fast food stores everywhere, people in fashion…"