Wuzhizhou Island () is located off the coast of

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

Province, China. This 1.48 square kilometre island is situated within Haitang Bay, approximately 30 kilometres northeast of

Sanya Sanya (; also spelled Samah) is the southernmost city on Hainan Island, and one of the four prefecture-level cities of Hainan Province in South China. According to the 2020 census, the total population of Sanya was 1,031,396 inhabitants, livi ...

, between

Nanwan Monkey Island Nanwan Monkey Island () is a state-protected nature reserve for macaque monkeys in Lingshui county on the south coast of Hainan, the southernmost province of China. While termed an island, the reserve is actually on the Nanwan peninsula borderi ...

to the north, and

Yalong Bay Yalong Bay () is a beach located in southeast Sanya, Hainan, China. It is also known as the Yalong Bay National Resort. The eastern part of the bay is occupied by PLA Navy as the East Section of Yulin Naval Base Yulin Naval Base () is the tradi ...

to the south.

History

The Taoist priest Wu Huacun of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

built a house on the island after arriving in search of a place to create the "elixir of life".

Geography

The island is 1.48 square kilometres with 5.7 kilometres of coastline, and has an irregular butterfly shape.

Flora and fauna

Over 2,700 plant varieties occur on the island, including exotic flowers and trees such as ''

Alsophila spinulosa ''Alsophila spinulosa'', also known as the flying spider-monkey tree fern, is a species of tree fern in the family Cyatheaceae The Cyatheaceae are a family of ferns, the scaly tree ferns, one of eight families in the order Cyatheales in the Pt ...

'' and ''

Dracaena draco ''Dracaena draco'', the Canary Islands dragon tree or drago, is a subtropical tree in the genus '' Dracaena'', native to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira, western Morocco, and is thought to be introduced in the Azores. Its closest living ...

'', thought to be the oldest plant species in the world. The waters surrounding the island contain numerous species such as sea cucumbers, urchins, and tropical fish.

Tropical sea ranch

In May 2011, a construction project began to create a marine ecology area. The "sea ranch" planned 18,000 cubic meters of

artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many ...

s over an area of approximately 66.6 hectares. This

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

project is funded by a private investment of about US$3 million. As of September 2020, there is now a National Marine Ranch Demonstration Zone and 6 of the planned marine ranches are under construction with additional funding in alignment with the overall plan for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, more ranches will follow to promote tourism as well as the recovery of the marine ecology. The following named ranches are under construction: * Haikou East Coast Marine Ranch * Lingaotou Yangwan Marine Ranch * Wenchang Fengjiawan Marine Ranch * Danzhou Eman Marine Ranch * Wanning Chauzi Island Marine Ranch * Sanya Yazhou Bay Ocean Ranch

References

Islands of Hainan {{Hainan-geo-stub de:Wuzhizhou zh:蜈支洲岛