A far-flung branch gives plenty of choice amid tide of change. Zhang Yunbi reports from Sansha city.

ATM machines, VIP rooms, an air-conditioned waiting room. These are common features in all city banks but the bank on Yongxing Island, host of the country's southernmost city government of Sansha, is not a typical city bank. These modern-day trappings are not taken for granted.

Luo Haiyun, 43, the Sansha branch chief of Chinese banking giant Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), told China Daily that the services provided on the island can now match those on offer anywhere. The various financial products are increasingly popular with the customers, many of whom are trying their hand at being entrepreneurs.

"The financial products offered by our bank have been welcomed by the islanders for years. One of the most popular products - Xinjinyi 1 (which means "Profitable Wage 1" in Chinese) - accounts for 10 percent of the total deposits in our branch," Luo said.

In the central part of Beijing Road, a major commercial hub on the island, stands the well-adorned ICBC branch, which is currently the only one that has been officially put into use.

"Now, there is no difference between the services provided on the island and those by branches outside, as we have all the needed functions in place and operations have been fully networked," Luo said.

The bank is now assisting fishermen's plans to shift to other businesses, such as restaurants and processing seafood, and the services include the installment of point-of-sale machines and loans.

"In the past, they only sold seafood. Now they are capable of processing the seafood, and sales have surged," Luo said.

Unique flavor

Partly due to increased business and growing local demand, Beijing Road is also home to ATM machines or 24-hour automatic banking outposts of other banks.

Close by will be the branch of another Chinese banking giant - the Bank of China, which is waiting to be officially inaugurated after approval for its operation was announced earlier this year.

Unlike the crowded halls of a typical banking branch in more densely populated mainland cities, the ICBC Sansha branch is a picture of order and efficiency.

Thanks to the small population and good public security climate, the branch does not even need a guard to maintain order.

Of course, surveillance cameras are still working. The customers - often clerks and fishermen - sit in chairs to await their turn. It may be humid outside, but every corner in the hall is air-conditioned.

But the outside world is encroaching. At the ATM a poster warns users against phone fraud.

Establishment

The ICBC branch started operating in 1959 and the early days were not easy. Staff had to combat the intense humidity, typhoons, a lack of electricity, fresh water and vegetables were scarce.

"We used to tap water from underground for bathing. The water was sometimes a yellow color, and some people got skin rash. A towel would soon not be fit for use," Luo said.

Before telecommunication facilities were in place on the island, the staff had to contend with the burden of missing their families and friends.

Now 4G signals and broadband Internet access have covered the island, and the branch office has access to the internal network of ICBC in 2011.

"Before access, we had to use deposit books and write everything down," Luo said.

Ships, once a rare sight, now shuttle frequently between Yongxing and Hainan islands, bringing every conceivable modern-day convenience as well as new staff.

Starting at the branch in January, 2012, Luo said he spent, on average, more than 200 days every year on the island, but thanks to the increasing number of ships dropping anchor there, he could enjoy more time with family members.

"Even so, the upgrading process lasted for a year because it took quite a long time to ship all the materials needed from outside batch by batch, bit by bit," Luo said.

The veteran banking manager believes online banking is the future and many of his customers are already availing of this service.

"All the cash we have here is brought in or taken away by ships," Luo explained with a smile, adding that the e-bank will help reduce their workload.

Contact the writer at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn

Hospital gets helping hands from across the waves

Sansha People's Hospital, the only full-scale medical institution on remote Yongxing Island, is meeting its increasing medical needs with a little help from its friends.

Given limited medical capacity, the hospital conducts preliminary treatments for patients requiring further care before they are transferred to major hospitals on Hainan Island.

To help meet the growing medical demands, young doctors and nurses have been temporarily transferred from Hainan Island to work at the hospital.

These young medics, including nurse Li Chunhong, 33, generally stay for about six months before returning to Hainan.

One of the tasks for Li and her medical colleagues is to introduce the islanders to the correct method of using antibiotics. "Some of the local residents tend to abuse antibiotics," Li said.

Xiang Dao, 32, a male doctor, said: "It is our duty to explain to them that antibiotics should be prescribed by doctors."

The hospital, built in the 1980s, has developed rapidly in recent years and the three-story building has an outpatient department as well as wards and rooms for those requiring an overnight stay.

A new program providing more medical equipment, financed by the central government, is likely to be in place before Sansha celebrates its fourth birthday in July, according to the city government.

The hospital has become a medical hub and provider of medicine to other islands and reefs nearby.

Huang Hongbo, chief of the resident committee on nearby Bei Island, dropped by the hospital for medicine to fight a heavy cold. Lack of medicine and medical facilities on islands such as Huang's was mirrored by his asking doctors for ten large packets of a traditional Chinese medicine.

Niu Mu, 30, a male doctor who previously worked in Haikou, said the first batch of medical staff that arrived in the 1980s endured a range of difficulties, such as a lack of electricity, medicine, running water and sometimes even food was not too abundant.

"These days, we enjoy fresh vegetables and meat, and the dishes served (at the canteen) are almost the same as those on Hainan Island. We have desalinated water for a good shower," Niu said.

Li said that even though the island is small, "we are all very satisfied with what we have and we believe it is a great honor to serve the island dwellers".

(China Daily 06/09/2016 page5)