At the end of 2020, many people are waiting for a holiday to enjoy the blue sea and blue sky, starting from May to June this year, Hainan ushered in an unprecedented opportunity, and domestic tourists who were restricted to the national gate went to Hainan Island for a vacation in order to enjoy the blue sea and blue sky again, and in November ushered in further good news: the two cruise ships in Xisha, Nanhai Dream and Changle Princess, began to resume sailing on December 9 and December 10, respectively.
The author has been to many islands before, including maldives, Mauritius, Fiji, Palau, Samui, Phuket, Tahiti, Saipan and other islands have play experience, for the general reason that the trip to Xisha has not been completed, has always had a feeling about Xisha: mysterious and proud, why say so? Let me take stock of all aspects of the Paracel Islands.
Let's start with the situation in the Paracel Islands
Panorama of the Paracel Islands
"West Eight Islands" and "East Seven Islands"
What is "Nishihachijima"? The so-called "West Eight Islands" is one of the two major archipelagos of the Paracel Islands, the Yongle Islands,
Yongle Islands, located in the South China Sea, is a group of islands belonging to the Paracel Islands, formerly known as the Lower Eight Islands or West Eight Islands, in the 36th year of the Republic of China (1947) in order to commemorate the activities of the Ming Dynasty Zheng He's fleet in the South China Sea Zhudao, the Chinese government named this island group "Yongle Islands".
Panorama of Yongle Atoll
The Yongle Islands are dominated and centered on Yongle Atoll, including North Reef in the north, Huaguang Reef in the south-central part, Yuzhuo Reef in the east, Panshiyu Island in the south, and Zhongjian Island in the southwest. There are 13 islands in total. There are also six waterway gates for internal lagoon and offshore shipping.
Let's talk about the seafood resources of the Yongle Islands, which will drool for foodies.
The main characteristic species of fish community species in The Yongle Islands are white-sided sawfish, double-banded plum seabream, single-plated shieldtail fish, golden-eyed seabream, big-eyed ray, long-bodied round seabream, four-banded snapper, five-banded parrotfish, fork-tailed seabream, yellow-lined purplefish, striped parrotfish, black-sided grouper, spotted bluefish, line-spotted gill spiny seabream and gold-banded jawed seabream.
Golden-eyed big-eyed seabream
Line-point gill perch
White-edged sawfish
Black-sided grouper
No, I'm going to go to a big meal
Quanfu Island is located in the northern edge of Yongle Atoll, the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 32 ′ north latitude, 111 ° 40 ′ east longitude, the island is nearly oval, about 450 meters long from east to west, about 220 meters wide from north to south, is a coral sand mainly supplemented by lime algae, foraminifera and other components of the sand island, the form is changeable, the area is expanding, the east and west ends extend significantly.
Located on a crescent-shaped reef with a length of 15 km and a maximum width of 1.4 km, near the geographical coordinates of 16 ° 35 ′ north latitude and 112 ° 42 ′ east longitude, Silver Island is a 6100 square meter sandbar, the island is covered with coral sand, and the central part is slightly concave like a shallow dish.
Yongle Islands - Silver Islands
Located on the same crescent-shaped reef about 600 meters south of Silver Island, the geographical coordinates of Yinzhi are also 16 ° 35 ′ north latitude, 112 ° 42 ′ east longitude, an area of more than 1800 square meters, and it is also a small sandbar, covered with coral sand, and the tide is often submerged.
Yagong Island is located 1 nautical mile southeast of Quanfu Island, 500 meters southwest of Yinyu Island, the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 34 ′ north latitude, 111 ° 41 ′ east longitude, an area of 9800 square meters, altitude of 1 to 3 meters, is a gravel beach island.
Yongle Islands - Yagong Island
Xianshe Island is located about 2 nautical miles southeast of Yagong Island, the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 33 ′ north latitude, 111 ° 43 ′ east longitude, oval shape, about 45 meters long, an area of more than 3,000 square meters, and an altitude of 3 meters. There are several gravel embankments piled up on the reef blocks. [1]
Shiyu Island is located at the northern end of the crescent-shaped long reef disk on the eastern reef edge of Yongle Atoll, about 2 nautical miles west of Xianshe Island, the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 33 ′ N, 111 ° 45 ′ E, the island is circular, with an area of more than 1,000 square meters, an altitude of about 2 meters, surrounded by sand embankments, and a low depression in the middle.
Jinqing Island is located at the southern end of the same crescent-shaped long reef disk as Shiyu Island, 7 nautical miles away from the northern end of Shiyu Island, and the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 28 ′ north latitude and 111 ° 44 ′ east longitude. Slightly oval-shaped, more than 700 meters long (northeast-southwest), more than 300 meters wide, with an area of about 0.21 square kilometers, it is a biological gravel silted up in a dry lake. The terrain is generally concave and concave, from the coast to the center: beach belt - beach rock belt - gravel embankment belt - central depression, the highest point (in the gravel ridge) is more than 6 meters, and the lowest point (in the central depression) is 2.2 meters.
Yongle Islands - Jinqing Island
Chenhang Island is located 1 nautical mile southwest of Jinqing Island, with geographical coordinates of 16 ° 27 ′ north latitude and 111 ° 43 ′ east longitude; about 1000 meters long, about 500 meters at the widest point, an area of 0.32 square kilometers, and the highest point is 3.9 meters above sea level. It is a gravel island, which is shaped into a gravel micro-landform under the wave transport and wash wash caused by tropical marine monsoons and typhoons, with a high and medium-low circumference, surrounded by sand embankments, and a dry lagoon in the middle.
Guangjin Island is located about 370 meters west of Chenhang Island, and is based on a reef (there is a sand mouth between the two islands with a width of 10 to 30 meters), the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 27 ′ north latitude, 111 ° 42 ′ east longitude; about 260 meters long, about 200 meters wide at the widest point, with an area of 0.076 square kilometers. It belongs to the sand island, the terrain is high and low, and the beach rocks are intermittently developed from the west-south-east coasts, and extend obliquely to the secondary lagoon, and the rock surface has developed coastal karst landforms such as karst ditches.
Treasure Island is located at the western end of Yongle Atoll, at 16° 27' north latitude and 111° 31' east longitude, with a length of 1275 meters from east to west, a width of 650 meters from north to south, an area of 0.36 square kilometers, and a maximum point of 8.2 meters. The island is shaped like a pipa, and the tail of the handle extends southeast, so the Hainan fishermen call it "tail island" or "tail stand". The surrounding sand banks are based on beach rocks, and the shallow depression in the middle is a dry lagoon.
Located on the reef plate in the southeast corner of Antelope Reef, the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 27 ′ north latitude, 111 ° 36 ′ east longitude, and the altitude is about 1 meter, which is a small sandbar with an area of only 0.01 square kilometers, shaped like a crescent moon, piled with biological debris such as white coral.
Ganquan Island is located at the western edge of Yongle Atoll, 7 nautical miles northeast of Treasure Island, and half a nautical mile north of Antelope Reef, with geographical coordinates of 16° 30′ N and 111° 35′ east longitude. The island is oval in shape, slightly up to 700 meters long from north to south, more than 500 meters wide from east to west, and has an area of about 0.3 square kilometers.
Yongle Islands - Ganquan Island
Coral Island is located in the southeast of the reef edge-reef disk at the western end of Yongle Atoll, 2 nautical miles northeast of Ganquan Island, with geographical coordinates of 16 ° 32 ′ north latitude and 111 ° 36 ′ east longitude; the island is oval in shape, about 900 meters long from east to west, more than 450 meters wide from north to south, and an area of about 0.31 square kilometers. Weekly high, high and low, the altitude is between 2.5 and 5 meters.
Zhongjian Island is located at the top of a taiwan reef 430 nautical miles southwest of Yongle Atoll, about 500 kilometers northwest of Hainan Island, with geographical coordinates of 15 ° 47 ′ north latitude and 111 ° 12 ′ east longitude, located at the southwest gate of the Paracel Islands, the location is very important. The island is rectangular in shape, 1850 meters long from east to west, about 800 meters wide from north to south, and has an area of 1.5 square kilometers. The surrounding reef is between 500 and 1000 meters wide, the edge of the reef is slightly raised to form a reef ridge, and the coastal sand embankment within the reef ridge to the surrounding island is a shallow inner reef flat; the sand embankment is low and flat, and the altitude is only 2.7 to 3 meters.
Panshiyu island is located in the west of an oval atoll about 10 kilometers long from east to west, 6 nautical miles southeast of Huaguang Reef, with geographical coordinates of 16° 02′ ~ 16 ° 05 ′ north latitude and 111 ° 45 ′ ~ 111 ° 50 ′ east longitude, forming a three-reef trend with Huaguang Reef and Yuzhuo Reef. Panshiyu island is a small sandbar covered with white biological sand, with an area of about 0.06 square kilometers and an altitude of 2.5 meters.
The northernmost reef of the North Reef Yonle Islands is located at latitude 17°05′ N, longitude 111°30′ E, and 30 nautical miles southeast of Quanfu Island. It develops on the western reef disk of an oval closed atoll, oblong-oval, about 4 km long from east to west, and 1.5 to 3.0 km wide from north to south.
Antelope Reef is located in the southwest corner of Yongle Atoll, 3.5 nautical miles from Treasure Island, because of its resemblance to an antelope, hainan fishermen called "basket boy"; the geographical coordinates are 16 ° 28 ′ north latitude, 111 ° 35 ′ east longitude; 12 km long from north to south, about 4 km widest from east to west. [1]
Located about 8 nautical miles northeast of Huaguang Reef, yuzhuo reef has geographical coordinates of 16°19′~16°22′N and longitude 111°57′~112°06′E, which is a closed atoll that is submerged underwater, also oblong-shaped, about 7 nautical miles long from east to west, and about 2.6 nautical miles wide from north to south. The lagoon within the reef is located in the west, with a water depth of 7 to 14 meters.
Geographically, Yongle Atoll is on the east side of the South Sea Route, and the traffic is well located. Historically, foreign invasions have mostly come from the southwest, and from the perspective of the defense situation, Yongle Atoll is also important. On June 26, 2015, part of the press release "Building China's Version of maldives" was part of the "Expansion of Islands and Reefs in the South China Sea to Change the Desolate Appearance", which reported: Sansha City has a vast sea area and many islands, and the only places that ordinary people can visit are the waters of the Xisha Yongle Islands.
In June 2015, on Jinqing Island, the Yongle Islands Comprehensive Law Enforcement and Rescue Center and fishermen's settlement have started construction, various machinery and equipment have arrived on the island, and dozens of workers are working intensively under the scorching sun. At Antelope Reef, the flood control tower next to the lagoon has been laid, and pearl oysters are sown in the lake. In Yagong Island, Quanfu Island and Yinyu Island, which receive the most tourists, 5 fishermen's music was set up at the end of 2014. In order to cooperate with the development of the tourism industry, Yongle Islands will build 5 features in 5 islands and reefs: Jinqing Island has accommodation and leisure, Yagong Island provides catering services, Antelope Reef promotes pearl culture, Ganquan Island builds the Tang and Song Dynasty Cultural Sites Museum, and Yinyu Island focuses on diving and swimming.
The "Seven East Islands" are the Xuande Islands
Xuande Islands is located in the north of the east side of the Paracel Islands, and its main body is Xuande Atoll, which was called "East Seven Islands" or "Upper Seven Islands" and "Upper Seven Islands" by fishermen in ancient China's Hainan. In 1947, it was named Xuande Islands to commemorate the seven voyages of the Ming Dynasty navigator Zheng He to the West between Ming Yongle and Xuande. The archipelago has a total of 8 islands, 6 sandbars and 7 shoals (reefs).
Xuande Archipelago is the main body and center of Xuande Atoll, including Woody Island - Stone Island, Qilian Island, Xuande Atoll, Silver Gravel Beach and Shoal, etc., of which Qilian Island includes Xishazhou - Zhao Shu Island and a series of islands. [1] Xuande Islands has a vast sea area, low, flat and small land area, and the islands and reefs are all ocean-type islands, which are mainly corals and shellfish to form coral islands and reefs with different rocks and soils, and the coral reefs are large; some coasts have developed beach rocks, the terrain is flat, and the landform type is relatively simple. Xuande Islands is located in a tropical area, the sea is coral-covered, unique habitat, fish species, diverse forms, ecological types are also more complex.
The main island and administrative center of the Xuande Islands is on Woody Island.
The aquatic products of Xuande Islands mainly include mackerel, grouper, red fish, bonito, striped fish, swordfish, moray eel, sardines, yellow croaker, swallow rays, pomfret, silver pomfret, tuna, sharks and so on.
There is not much to say about aquatic products here, but the focus is on Woody Island
Woody Island
The Hainan fishermen of Woody Island are called "Cat Stand" or "Ba Zhu" (Hainanese two harmonic sounds), which originated from the ancient fishermen who encountered mice when they first went to the island and brought cats to the island to breed. In the 35th year of the Republic of China (1946), the Chinese government sent the warship Yongxing to take over the Paracel Islands, which was commemorated by the name of the ship.
The geographical coordinates of Woody Island are 16°50′ north latitude and 112°20′ east longitude, which is 180 nautical miles from Yulin Port of Hainan Island, which is located northwest of it. The island is nearly oval in shape, with an east-west length of about 1950 meters, a north-south width of about 1350 meters, and an area of 2.1 square kilometers, making it the largest island in the South China Sea. The land surface of the island is flat, with an average altitude of 5 meters above sea level, and the highest point is the sand embankment in the southwest of 8.5 meters; the width of the surrounding reef disk is about 1200 meters, the reef edge protrudes into a white wave wreath, and the snow white sand is 50 to 100 meters wide, surrounding the lush green jungle, and the sand is surrounded by sand banks that are 100 meters wide and 6 to 8 meters high. In the middle of the island is a lowland formed by the drying of the lagoon, developing phosphorous limestone soil derived from bird droppings, with many wells in between, and sufficient water, but it cannot be eaten because of its magnesium sulfate content, and can only be used for washing.
Woody Island is located in the middle of the Paracel Islands, the area is larger, the wind and waves are small, there is a good anchorage around it, it is convenient for boats to anchor, the island has a beautiful environment, so it has always been the base of production and life of Chinese fishermen and the capital of the South China Sea Islands, hainan province has become the administrative center of the West, South and Zhongsha Islands after the establishment of Hainan Province.
Having said a part of the general situation of the Paracel Islands, the following focus is on the next two cruise ships, which is the focus of the focus.
"The Dream of the South China Sea"
Map of the South China Sea Dream Route
The image above is a route map of the South Sea Dream
The embarkation age is limited to Chinese citizens aged 12 to 68
Pictured above is the room type of the cruise ship
Luxurious suite with sea view
The living room | room 25.7㎡ | bedroom 1.35m large bed | view | separate toilet (bathtub) | TV| writing desk| wardrobe| sofa| coffee table| refrigerator| pager
Deluxe Double Room with Sea View
1.35m large bed | room: 13.3㎡ | viewing window| separate toilet| TV| writing desk| wardrobe| sofa| coffee table| refrigerator | pager
Double room with sea view
2 single tile | rooms: 10㎡ | view window| separate toilet| TV | TV cabinet| clothes hook| luggage rack | pager
Superior Quadruple Room with Sea View
2 groups of bunk | rooms: 10㎡ | view window| separate toilet| TV| TV cabinet| clothes hook| luggage rack | pager
Room for 6 people with sea view
3 groups of bunk | rooms: 10㎡ | TV| small table| washstand | pager
Interior cabin for six people
Paracel - The Meaning of Travel
The Paracel Islands have been China's territorial waters since ancient times and are an inseparable part of China. The moment you board the ship and sail for Xisha, it is a solemn tribute in itself!