Islands of Shanghai

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A false-color image of northeastern Shanghai: Chongming forms the northern bank of this channel of the Yangtze while Changxing (L) and Hengsha (R) lie midstream. The four shoals of Jiuduansha lie to the southeast, off the coast of Pudong. Shanghai Landsat-7 2005-08-15.jpg
A false-color image of northeastern Shanghai: Chongming forms the northern bank of this channel of the Yangtze while Changxing  (L) and Hengsha  (R) lie midstream. The four shoals of Jiuduansha lie to the southeast, off the coast of Pudong.

The islands of Shanghai are those under the jurisdiction of the Shanghai municipal government. They comprise three large inhabited islands and a shifting number of smaller, uninhabited ones. Most are alluvial islands in the Yangtze River Delta in China, although a number of islands in Hangzhou Bay off Jinshan District are also administered by Shanghai. The alluvial islands are relatively young and their number varies over time. In 2006, the city's 19 uninhabited islands covered 226.27 square kilometers (87.36 sq mi), with a total coastline length of 309 kilometers (192 mi). [1]

Contents

The Yangshan area of the Port of Shanghai is also located on two islands, Greater and Lesser Yangshan in Hangzhou Bay, but these are administered as part of Zhejiang's Shengsi County.

Chongming County

All three inhabited islands of Shanghai are alluvial islands in the Yangtze estuary between the Municipality of Shanghai and Jiangsu Province. They are administered as Chongming County, with its seat at Chengqiao on Chongming Island. The county was added to Shanghai from Jiangsu in 1958 and remains mostly rural: In 2008, its registered population of 693000 included 450300 farmers. [2]

Chongming Island (崇明岛) (1,267 km2 or 489 sq mi [2] ) is now the second-largest island of mainland China (after Hainan). The natural expansion of the island has been greatly accelerated by reclamation projects, which doubled its size between 1950 and 2010. This growth caused it to absorb the former island of Yonglongsha, creating a long pene-exclave of Jiangsu on its northern shore administered as the townships of Haiyong and Qilong. The island was connected to Changxing by the Yangtze Bridge in 2009 [3] and to Qidong in Jiangsu by the Chongqi Bridge in 2011. [4] The Chonghai Bridge, to Haimen in Jiangsu, remains under construction [5] and plans for Shanghai's S7 (Huchong) Expressway call for the creation of a bridge directly from Baoshan District to Chengqiao.

Changxing Island (长兴岛) (88.54 km2 or 34.19 sq mi [6] ) lies between Chongming and Shanghai in the southern channel of the Yangtze opposite the mouth of the Huangpu, the major river of central Shanghai. It is connected to Chongming by the Yangtze Bridge and Shanghai's Pudong New Area by the Yangtze Tunnel.

Hengsha Island (横沙岛) (55.74 km2 or 21.52 sq mi [6] ) lies to Changxing's east and is connected with the mainland and other islands by ferry service.

Pudong New Area

Jiuduansha is an intertidal wetland. The 114.6 km2 (44.2 sq mi) area above sea level comprises four major shoals: Upper, Middle, Lower, and South Jiuduansha. [7] [9] These shoals and the waters surrounding them to a depth of 6 meters or 20 feet (occupying an additional 308.6 km2 or 119.2 sq mi) form the Jiuduansha Wetland Nature Reserve, a nationally-protected area of Shanghai. [7] The shoals began forming during the Yangtze floods of the late 1940s and early 1950s, [7] but were developed and protected as a replacement for the wetlands of eastern Pudong during the construction of Shanghai's international airport in the 1990s. [10] The cordgrass introduced in 1995 has succeeded in stabilizing the shoals but is now considered to be highly invasive, displacing the native reeds and bullrushes [11] [12] and degrading parts of the wetlands. [10] A wetland museum, as well as a Science Popularization Park on about 5 square kilometers (1.9 sq mi) of the island, are planned to increase public awareness and support. [10]

Jinshan District

Dajinshan Island ( t   大金山島 , s   大金山岛 , p  Dàjīnshān Dǎo, lit. "Greater Gold Mountain Island"), Xiaojinshan Island ("Lesser Gold Mountain Island"), and Fushan Island in Jinshan District are nature reserves under city jurisdiction. [1] They are located in Hangzhou Bay. Dajinshan has the highest point in Shanghai with an elevation of 103.4 meters (339 ft).

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chongming District</span> District in Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China

Chongming District is northernmost district of the provincial-level municipality of Shanghai. Chongming consists of three low-lying inhabited alluvial islands at the mouth of the Yangtze north of the Shanghai peninsula: Chongming, Changxing, and Hengsha. Following its massive expansion in the 20th century, Chongming is now the 2nd-largest island administered by the People's Republic of China and the 2nd-largest in Greater China, after Hainan. Chongming does not, however, administer all of the island: owing to its continual expansion from sediment deposited by the Yangtze, it has merged with formerly separate islands and now includes Jiangsu province's pene-exclave townships of Haiyong and Qilong. Chongming proper covers an area of 1,411 km2 (545 sq mi) and had a population of 704 000 at the time of the Sixth National Census in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hangzhou Bay Bridge</span> Bridge in Jiaxing / Cixi City Peoples Republic of China

Hangzhou Bay Bridge is a long 35.7 km (22.2 mi) highway bridge with two separate cable-stayed portions, built across the mouth of Hangzhou Bay in the eastern coastal region of China. It connects the municipalities of Jiaxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nantong</span> Prefecture-level city in Jiangsu, Peoples Republic of China

Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wuxi and Shanghai to the south across the river; and the East China Sea to the east. Its population was 7,726,635 as of the 2020 census, 3,766,534 of whom lived in the built-up area made up of three urban districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chongming Island</span> Northernmost part of Shanghai

Chongming, formerly known as Chungming, is an alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze River in eastern China covering 1,267 square kilometers (489 sq mi) as of 2010. Together with the islands Changxing and Hengsha, it forms Chongming District, the northernmost area of the provincial-level municipality of Shanghai. At the time of the 2010 Chinese census, its population was 660,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qidong, Jiangsu</span> County-level city in Jiangsu, Peoples Republic of China

Qidong is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nantong in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. It is located on the north side of the Yangtze River opposite Shanghai and forms a peninsula jutting out into the East China Sea. It has a population of 1.12 million.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yangshan Port</span> Port in China

Yangshan Port, formally the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, is a deep water port for container ships in Hangzhou Bay south of Shanghai. The port is part of the Maritime Silk Road. The port is built on the islands of Greater and Lesser Yangshan, part of the Zhoushan archipelago, with fill from land reclamation. Connected to Shanghai's Pudong New Area by the Donghai Bridge and forming part of the Port of Shanghai, the islands of Greater and Lesser Yangshan are administered separately as part of Zhejiang's Shengsi County.

The Chonghai Bridge is a proposed bridge to span the northern distributary at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the People's Republic of China. The bridge, along with the Chongqi Bridge and the Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge, is to connect the city of Shanghai with the north bank of the Yangtze in Jiangsu Province via Chongming Island.

Chongming-Qidong Yangtze River Bridge or the Chongqi Bridge, also called Chongqi Crossing Project, is a bridge across the north fork of the Yangtze River, near the river's mouth between Chongming Island of Shanghai and Qidong in Jiangsu Province. This bridge, along with the Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge to the south, forms the last crossing of the Yangtze River before the river empties into the East China Sea. The bridge carries the six-lane G40 Shanghai–Xi'an Expressway, part of the National Expressway Network of the People's Republic of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge</span> Fixed link between Chongming Island and Pudong, eastern China

The Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge is a bridge–tunnel complex across the south fork of the Yangtze River near the river mouth in Shanghai. The tunnel connects the Pudong District of Shanghai on the south bank of the river with Changxing Island, while the bridge connects Changxing Island with Chongming Island. In combination with the Chongqi Bridge, which connects Chongming Island to the north bank of the Yangtze, the bridge–tunnel complex forms the final crossing of the Yangtze before it empties into the East China Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Shanghai</span>

The geography of Shanghai is characterised by its location on the Yangtze River Delta on China's east coast and its proximity to the Pacific Ocean via the East China Sea. The city is centred on the Huangpu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, and extends outwards in all directions, with the suburbs and satellite towns reaching east to the East China Sea, north and west to Jiangsu province, and south to Zhejiang province over Hangzhou Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hengsha Island</span>

Hengsha is a low-lying alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze River in eastern China. Together with the islands of Chongming and Changxing, it forms Chongming District, the northernmost area of the provincial-level municipality of Shanghai. Its population was 33,400 in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chongming line</span> Shanghai Metro route under construction

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridges and tunnels across the Yangtze River</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">G15 Shenyang–Haikou Expressway</span> Motorway in eastern China

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jiuduansha</span> Intertidal wetlands of Shanghai

Jiuduansha is a collection of four intertidal wetland shoals at the mouth of China's Yangtze River. They are administered as an island region of the municipality of Shanghai's Pudong New Area.

Haiyong is a town of Haimen District in Nantong, Jiangsu, China. Together with neighboring Qilong, it forms a pene-enclave of the province on Chongming Island, most of which belongs to the province-level municipality of Shanghai. Haiyong presently covers about 12.5 square kilometers (5 sq mi) and had a population of 5,004 during the year 2000 census.

Yonglongsha, sometimes translated as the Yonglong Shoal or Yonglong Sands, was a former island in the north channel of the Yangtze River to the north of Chongming in eastern China. It was also known as Yongfengsha and Hefengsha. Prior to its absorption by Chongming, it measured about 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) east to west but was very narrow, with an area of about 14 km2 (5.4 sq mi).

Qilong is a township of Qidong in eastern Jiangsu province. The land it occupies was formerly Yonglongsha, a separate island in the Yangtze River delta, but reclamation projects and natural deposition of sediment have joined it to Chongming Island, where it now forms a pene-enclave within Shanghai's Chongming County. Its population was 3436 at the time of the 2010 Chinese census. Qilong's name—literally "opening prosperity"—is a compound of contracted forms of its county and its former island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanghai Suburban Railway</span> Overview of transport in Shanghai

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References

  1. 1 2 China Daily
  2. 1 2 "Chongming County" in the Encyclopedia of Shanghai, pp. 50 ff. Archived 2013-03-02 at the Wayback Machine Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers (Shanghai), 2010. Hosted by the Municipality of Shanghai.
  3. "Bridge-Tunnel Linking Chongming Island Opens to Traffic". Shanghai Daily . 31 Oct 2009. Accessed 3 Nov 2009.
  4. "'长江入海第一桥'崇启大桥24日正式建成通车" [ permanent dead link ] ["'Chángjiāng Rùhǎi Dì Yī Qiáo' Chóngqǐ Dàqiáo 24 Rì Zhèngshì Jiànchéng Tōngchē", "Chongqi Bridge, the 'First Bridge of the Yangtze Delta', Officially Opens to Traffic on the 24th"]. 中国广播网 [Zhōngguó Guǎngbōwǎng]. 24 Dec 2011. (in Chinese)
  5. "Major Construction Completed on Chongqi Bridge". People's Daily . 21 Sept 2011. Accessed 19 Oct 2011.
  6. 1 2 Shanghai Statistical Bureau Yearbook 2007 [ permanent dead link ]
  7. 1 2 3 "Overview Archived 2015-01-08 at the Wayback Machine ". The Shanghai Jiuduansha Wetland Nature Reserve (Shanghai), 2014.
  8. "Introduction Archived 2015-01-08 at the Wayback Machine ". The Shanghai Jiuduansha Wetland Nature Reserve (Shanghai), 2014.
  9. Also known by the Mandarin form of their Chinese names: Shangsha, Zhongsha, Xiasha, and Jiangyanansha. [8] The last is named for its proximity to the site of the 1948 explosion and sinking of the SS Kiangya.
  10. 1 2 3 "Fourth Island Wetland Emerging", pp. 12. Shanghai Daily . 8 Dec 2009. Hosted at China.org.
  11. Pratolongo, Paula & al. "Temperate Coastal Wetlands: Morphology, Sediment Processes, and Plant Communities" in Coastal Wetlands: An Integrated Ecosystem Approach, p. 105. Elsevier (Amsterdam), 2009.
  12. Scott, David B. Coastal Wetlands of the World: Geology, Ecology, Distribution, and Applications, pp. 229 f. Cambridge University Press (Cambridge), 2014.