text: China to open port in Hainan to foreign ships . BEIJING 1996-12-06 China 's State Council , or cabinet , has given a port in the southern province of Hainan permission to open to foreign vessels , the Xinhua news agency said on Friday . Xinhua did not say when Qinglan port in Wenchang city would be opened to foreign vessels . Wenchang has built a berth for 5,000 deadweight-tonne container ships at the port and invested 34 million yuan ( $ 4.1 million ) to dredge the harbour , Xinhua said . It gave no further details . ( $ 1 = 8.3 yuan )