Xieyang Island () is a Chinese

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

Gulf of Tonkin The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin ( northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern co ...

, located south-east of

Weizhou Island Weizhou Island () is a Chinese island in Beibu Gulf in the Gulf of Tonkin. The largest island of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Weizhou is west of Leizhou Peninsula, south of Beihai, and east of Vietnam. Administratively, it is part of Wei ...

. Administratively it, along with Weizhou Island, forms the town of Weizhou, in

Haicheng District Haicheng (; ) is the seat of the city of Beihai, Guangxi, China. It has an area of and a population of 240,000 . Administrative divisions Haicheng District is divided into 7 subdistricts and 1 town: Subdistricts: * Zhongjie Subdistrict (中� ...

Beihai Beihai (; Postal romanization: Pakhoi) is a prefecture-level city in the south of Guangxi, People's Republic of China. Its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin has granted it historical importance as a port of internati ...

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

. It is one of the tourist attractions of Beihai.

Geography

Xieyang has an area of only and is of volcanic origin. The island may be described as appearing like a goat with its front legs crouched, and so in ancient times was called "".

Environment

Along with Weizhou , waters around Xieyang were discovered in 2015 to be seasonally frequented by

Bryde's whale Bryde's whale ( ), or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three species of rorqual and possibly four. The "complex" means the number and classification remain unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research. The c ...

s, and the area has become the first acknowledged location among mainland coasts of China to have regular migrations of large cetaceans.Bingyao Chen, Lin Zhu, Thomas A. Jefferson, Kaiya Zhou, Guang Yang, 2019, ''Coastal Bryde's Whales' (Balaenoptera edeni) Foraging Area Near Weizhou Island in the Beibu Gulf'', Aquatic Mammals, Vol.45, Issue 3 Xieyang, along with nearby Weizhou, has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports significant populations of

Chinese egret The Chinese egret or Swinhoe's egret (''Egretta eulophotes'') is a threatened species of egret from east Asia, first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1860. Description The Chinese egret averages 68 cm in height. The plumage is white throug ...

s and

fairy pitta The fairy pitta (''Pitta nympha'') is a small and brightly colored species of passerine bird in the family Pittidae. Its diet mainly consists of earthworms, spiders, insects, slugs, and snails. The fairy pitta breeds in East Asia and migrates s ...

References

斜阳岛---中国著名岛屿介绍_中国景点网
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