Editor’s note:

The road to success is long and full of potholes, but youths are made to go full throttle.

Youth is a time for chasing dreams, and it is young people who are the new driving force in the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP). For many of them, Hainan is not just some idyllic backwater; it's a land where dreams are made. Making dreams come true is an arduous trek, and for many young people, Hainan is the place where this journey begins.

Hainan FTP construction commenced in earnest and has thus far made shining progress, much of which can be attributed to 'youth power'. To coincide with the second anniversary of the release of the Master Plan for the Construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, HIMC is launching "Youth Power in the Hainan FTP · Dare to Dream", a series where young people working in various fields in the Hainan FTP are interviewed in English about how the construction of the FTP is helping them realize their dreams and invites them to share the stories of the Hainan youth with the world.

You Mengyu is a current affairs journalist with the Hainan Daily Group. In 2014, she came to Hainan with her husband, becoming a ‘New Hainanese’. “In the past few years, I was so honored to attend almost every significant event of Hainan”, she said. One of her most impressive career highlights was documenting the Hainan Brightness Action program. In this program, she saw how the media can effect positive change - in this case helping local people to receive surgery for cataracts - as well as enhance communications between Hainan and Cambodia.

During her years in Hainan, You Mengyu has witnessed the continuous development of Hainan. “Haikou now has more and more cultural activities, from which can be seen that Hainan is developing better”. As a journalist, she will continue to use her talents as best as she can to record and share the changes of Hainan Free Trade Port with the world, making her own contribution to the promotion of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.