Qilong is a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

of Qidong in eastern

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

province. The land it occupies was formerly

Yonglongsha Yonglongsha, sometimes translated as the Yonglong Shoal or Yonglong Sands, was a former island in the north channel of the Yangtze River above Chongming in eastern China. It was also known as Yongfengsha and Hefengsha.Office of Shanghai Chronicl ...

, a separate

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

in the

Yangtze River delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan re ...

, but reclamation projects and natural deposition of

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...

have joined it to

Chongming Island Chongming, formerly known as Chungming, is an alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze River in eastern China covering as of 2010. Together with the islands Changxing and Hengsha, it forms Chongming District, the northernmost area of the ...

, where it now forms a

pene-enclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

within

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

Chongming County 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, Changxi ...

. Its population was 3436 at the time of the

2010 Chinese census The 2010 Chinese census, officially the Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (中華人民共和國第六次全國人口普查), was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China w ...

. Qilong's name—literally "opening prosperity"—is a compound of contracted forms of its county and its former island.

History

, a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

in the channel of the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

north of

, reappeared most recently in 1937. By 1968, workers from Jiangsu had stabilized the land enough that the conflicting claims of the counties of

Haimen Haimen (, Qihai dialect: , Shanghai: ) is a district of Nantong, Jiangsu province, with a population of approximately 1 million. It is located at the opposite side of the Yangtze River to Shanghai and is directly north of Chongming Island except f ...

and Qidong were mediated by their prefecture of

Nantong Nantong (; alternate names: Nan-t'ung, Nantung, Tongzhou, or Tungchow; Qihai dialect: ) 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 vit ...

, which divided the island between them. Qidong's area was organized as a farmstead. Continuing reclamation projects and natural deposition of

joined it to Chongming Island in 1972. Another area of Qilong derives from its later absorption of Xinglongsha (), another shoal. Prior to Yonglongsha's absorption by Chongming, it offered ferry service to

's Lingdian Harbor () and Qidong's Sanhe Harbor (). Qilong was elevated to a

in 1992 and is now connected to Chongming's road network but this also was only connected to Jiangsu by ferry service prior to the 2011 opening of the Chongqi Bridge between Chenjia and Qidong. In 2008, its urban plan included for construction of five agricultural parks: a rare flower park, a

ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus with ...

park, a

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosacea ...

orchard, an

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

, and a nursery forest. The area achieved minor notability in 2014 when satellite imagery revealed that a local farm had shaped one of its fields into a yin-yang symbol.

Economy

As with many areas of Chongming Island, Qilong farms hairy crab. In addition, they grow

edamame is a preparation of immature soybeans in the pod, found in cuisines with origins in East Asia. The pods are boiled or steamed and may be served with salt or other condiments. In Japan, they are usually blanched in 4% salt water for 5 minu ...

for export to Japan and South Korea and malting barley for domestic production. From 2003, Qilong has seen

dairy farms A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a ...

established and expanded for Shanghai-area milk companies. The Shanghai-based Yaoji Playing Card Company also has plans to construct a Thai-themed amusement park in the territory.

Government

The

of Qilong forms part of the

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...

of Qidong, itself part of the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of Chi ...

in Jiangsu province. Qilong is divided between the

communities A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, to ...

of Yonglong (, ''Yǒnglóng Shèqū'') and Xinglong (, ''Xīnglóng Shèqū'')..

References

External links

Qidong People's Government
* at Hudong Baike {{in lang, zh Township-level divisions of Jiangsu Geography of Nantong

History

Economy

Government

See also

References

External links