The islands of Shanghai are those under the jurisdiction of the

Shanghai municipal government The Shanghai Municipal People's Government is the local administrative agency of Shanghai. It is officially elected by the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and is formally responsible to the SMPC and its Standing Committee. The municipal gove ...

. They comprise three large inhabited islands and a shifting number of smaller, uninhabited ones. Most are

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

islands in the

Yangtze River Delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD), once known as the Shanghai Economic Zone, is a megalopolis generally comprising the Wu-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, southern Anhui. The area lies in the he ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, although a number of islands in

Hangzhou Bay Hangzhou Bay is a funnel-shaped inlet of the East China Sea on the middle eastern coast of Mainland China, bordered by the province of Zhejiang to the west and south, and the municipality of Shanghai to north. The bay extends westwards to its ...

off

Jinshan District Jinshan District, is a suburban district of southwestern Shanghai, neighboring Zhejiang province and Hangzhou Bay. It has a land area of and a population of 732,500 as of the 2010 Chinese census. Jinshan District, located in the southwest of ...

are also administered by Shanghai. The alluvial islands are relatively young and their number varies over time. In 2006, the city's 19 uninhabited islands covered , with a total coastline length of . The Yangshan area of the

Port of Shanghai The Port of Shanghai ( zh, c=上海港, p=''Shànghǎi Gǎng'' ; Wu; ''Zånhae Kån'') is located in the vicinity of Shanghai, comprises a deep-sea port and a river port. The main port enterprise in Shanghai, the Shanghai International Por ...

is also located on two islands, Greater and Lesser Yangshan in

, but these are administered as part of

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

Shengsi County Shengsi County is a county in the northeast of Zhejiang province in China consisting of an archipelago islands located to the east of Hangzhou Bay. It is under the administration of Zhoushan City and is the easternmost county-level division in ...

Chongming County

All three inhabited islands of Shanghai are alluvial islands in the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

estuary between the

Municipality of Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

and

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu is a coastal province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the third smallest, but the fifth most populous, with a population of 84. ...

. They are administered as Chongming County, with its

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

at Chengqiao on Chongming Island. The county was added to Shanghai from Jiangsu in 1958 and remains mostly rural: In 2008, its registered population of included farmers.

Chongming Island Chongming (), Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Chungming, is an alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze, Yangtze River in East China covering as of 2010. Together with the islands Changxing Island (Shanghai), Changxing an ...

() ("Chongming County" in the ''Encyclopedia of Shanghai'', pp. 50 ff.
Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers (Shanghai), 2010. Hosted by the Municipality of Shanghai.) is now the second-largest island of mainland China (after

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

). The natural expansion of the island has been greatly accelerated by reclamation projects, which doubled its size between 1950 and 2010. This growth caused it to absorb the former island of Yonglongsha, creating a long

pene-exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

on its northern shore administered as the

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

s of Haiyong and Qilong. The island was connected to Changxing by the Yangtze Bridge in 2009 and to Qidong in Jiangsu by the Chongqi Bridge in 2011. The Chonghai Bridge, to Haimen in Jiangsu, remains under constructionMajor Construction Completed on Chongqi Bridge
. ''

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' ( zh, s=人民日报, p=Rénmín Rìbào) is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP in multiple lan ...

''. 21 Sept 2011. Accessed 19 Oct 2011. and plans for Shanghai's S7 (Huchong) Expressway call for the creation of a bridge directly from Baoshan District to Chengqiao. Changxing Island () (Shanghai Statistical Bureau Yearbook 2007
/ref>) lies between Chongming and Shanghai in the southern channel of the Yangtze opposite the mouth of the Huangpu, the major river of central Shanghai. It is connected to Chongming by the Yangtze Bridge and Shanghai's

Pudong New Area Pudong is a district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name ''Pudong'' was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank, directly across from the west bank or Puxi, the historic cit ...

by the Yangtze Tunnel. Hengsha Island () () lies to Changxing's east and is connected with the mainland and other islands by ferry service.

Pudong New Area

Jiuduansha Jiuduansha is a collection of four intertidal wetland shoals at the mouth of China's Yangtze River. They are administered as an island region of the municipality of Shanghai's Pudong New Area. These shoals and the submerged land surrounding ...

is an intertidal wetland. The area above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

comprises four major

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

s: Upper, Middle, Lower, and South Jiuduansha. These shoals and the waters surrounding them to a depth of (occupying an additional ) form the Jiuduansha Wetland Nature Reserve, a nationally-protected area of Shanghai. The shoals began forming during the Yangtze floods of the late 1940s and early 1950s,Overview
". The Shanghai Jiuduansha Wetland Nature Reserve (Shanghai), 2014. but were developed and protected as a replacement for the wetlands of eastern

Pudong Pudong is a list of administrative divisions of Shanghai, district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu River, Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name ''Pudong'' was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank (g ...

during the construction of Shanghai's

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

in the 1990s. The

cordgrass ''Spartina'' is a genus of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Species in this genus are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Eu ...

introduced in 1995 has succeeded in stabilizing the shoals but is now considered to be highly invasive, displacing the native reeds and bullrushesPratolongo, Paula & al
"Temperate Coastal Wetlands: Morphology, Sediment Processes, and Plant Communities" in ''Coastal Wetlands: An Integrated Ecosystem Approach'', p. 105.
Elsevier (Amsterdam), 2009.Scott, David B
''Coastal Wetlands of the World: Geology, Ecology, Distribution, and Applications'', pp. 229 f.
Cambridge University Press (

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

), 2014. and degrading parts of the wetlands."Fourth Island Wetland Emerging", pp. 1–2.
''

Shanghai Daily ''Shanghai Daily'' () is an English-language newspaper founded in 1999 and owned by the Shanghai United Media Group, a state media company under the control of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It was the first dail ...

''. 8 Dec 2009. Hosted at China.org. A wetland museum, as well as a Science Popularization Park on about of the island, are planned to increase public awareness and support.

Jinshan District

Dajinshan Island ( t , s , p ''Dàjīnshān Dǎo'', "Greater Gold Mountain Island"), Xiaojinshan Island ("Lesser Gold Mountain Island"), and Fushan Island in

are nature reserves under city jurisdiction.''China Daily''
/ref> They are located in

. Dajinshan has the highest point in Shanghai with an elevation of .

References

External links

"Islands and Shoals of Shanghai"
at the Office of Shanghai Chronicles {{DEFAULTSORT:Islands Shanghai Yangtze River Delta

Chongming County

Pudong New Area

Jinshan District

See also

References

External links