Aerospace peppers and astronaut robots: A town's transformation reveals China's ambitions in space

If you follow China's bold ambition to join the great space powers, it will eventually lead you here, to the neglected eastern edge of steamy Hainan island, in a speck of a village that doesn't appear on most maps. Rocket replicas and signs for Wi-Fi welcome visitors past coconut trees and peppers grown from seeds bred in space. Guide maps show what this hamlet of about 50 residents might become, though the blacktop still looks fresh and most of the noise comes from the chicken coop. Local officials envision Haosheng as the start of a thriving tourist destination tied to nearby Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, much in the way Florida's Space Coast draws visitors interested in Cape Canaveral. China's newest spaceport opened for tours last year and just sent the country's first cargo spacecraft into orbit.