| Wanshan Archipelago | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 萬山羣島 or 萬山群島 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 万山群岛 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | Ten Thousand Islands Archipelago[1] | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
The Wanshan Archipelago (which means Myriad Islands Archipelago), sometimes referred to as the Ladrones Islands (Thieves Islands), is a 104-island archipelago that is part of Zhuhai Municipality in Guangdong Province in the People's Republic of China. Most of its islands are in the Wanshan Marine Development Experimental Zone[2].
Contents |
The islands are situated in the South China Sea, to the south of the opening of the Pearl River estuary and Hong Kong.
Wanshan Islands also include some islands in Hong Kong and Macau, such as Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island in Hong Kong, Taipa-Coloane Island in Macau.
The archipelago, as featured on modern maps,[3] includes several groups of islands. On the older European maps, the western group, located south of the Pearl River estuary and Hong Kong's island of Lantao, and including. among others, the Greater Wanshan Island (Da Wanshan Dao), Guishan Dao, Zhizhou Liedao (蜘洲列岛) group, Wai Dangling Dao, Sanmen Liedao (三门列岛) group and Aizhou Liedao (隘洲列岛) groups, was known as the Ladrones Islands (i.e., Thieves Islands, in Spanish or Portuguese). The eastern chain of islands, located south of Hong Kong, was known in the west as Lema Islands; these days, the western half of this chain is known as Pengjia Liedao (蓬佳列岛), while the eastern is Dangan Liedao (担杆列岛).
The largest island, Dangan (担杆), features mountainous terrain similar to Hong Kong.
Islands of the archipelgo include:
Dangan Liedao (the eastern group of Wanshan archipelago, and the eastern half of the former Lema Islands chain) - 13.2 square kilometres in area and the largest of the islands; 200 permanent residents
Pengjia Liedao (蓬佳列岛) (the southern group of Wanshan archipelago, and the western half of the former Lema Islands chain)
Southwestern group, apparently without a general name
Central group, apparently without a general name; located south of Lantau
Norhwestern group, apparently without a general name; located between Lantau and Macau
Other geographically important points of interest:
There is a small local population. mostly in small fishing villages:
The archipelago's economy is mainly fisheries (crystal prawn, peeler crab). There is a growing tourism industry with a focus on history (Blundbuss Tower is a major attraction on Dong'ao Island), beaches, and the natural beauty of the islands. About 350,000 tourists visit the islands annually.
There is also potential for petroleum extraction in the waters off the islands.
|
|||||
