Hengsha (横沙岛,

Shanghainese The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the city of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan langua ...

: ''Waan So Tau'') is a low-lying

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 ...

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 ...

at the mouth of the

Yangtze River 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 ...

in eastern

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 ...

. Together with the islands of Chongming and Changxing, it forms

Chongming District Chongming District () is the 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, Cha ...

, the northernmost area of the provincial-level

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

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 ...

. Its population was 33,400 in 2008.

Name

''Heng'' is the horizontal, rightward stroke used in writing

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

, similar in form to a

dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

. It is also used to mean "horizontal". It was applied to the island for the way it formerly stood athwart the mouth of the Yangtze, although time has now given it a round or heart-like shape and moved it in line with Changxing.

History

Hengsha first emerged from the Yangtze in 1858. It began to be reclaimed for agricultural purposes in 1886 or 1890. Hengsha Township was established in 1909. Between its formation and 1958, the island gradually expanded towards the northwest while receding to the southeast: together, these actions caused the island to "migrate" about in the direction of Changxing. Under the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

, the island carried on an active trade in grains via junk. Hengsha was originally part of Chuansha County, which later merged into

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 ...

. In 1958, the island was placed under Baoshan County, as its ferries operated from the harbor of Wusong at the mouth of the Huangpu. The island's wandering was ended by the erection of a seawall and stabilization of the banks around the island. The next year, it saw a major influx of population, including

boat people Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...

who were organized into fishing brigades. During the

Down to the Countryside Movement The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement, was a policy instituted in the China, People's Republic of China between the mid-1950s and 1978. As a result of what he p ...

, many of the '' sent-down youth'' from

travelled no further than Hengsha, where they assisted in reclamation, urban defense, and

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

efforts. Hengsha was named among the first set of national tourist resorts ( t , s , p ''guójiā jí lǚyóu dùjià cūn'') by

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in October 1992. Initial plans called for the construction of a

casino A casino is a facility for gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, conce ...

, although that was cancelled. In March 2002, the Shanghai Municipal Government approved plans to develop Hengsha as an international conference center and forest park, with tree coverage over at least 70% of the island. In 2005, it was moved from the jurisdiction of Baoshan District to Chongming County.

Geography

Hengsha is located in the channel of the

flowing south of Chongming and north of the

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

of Baoshan and

immediately before its entrance into the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

. Hengsha is the southeasternmost of the three islands of Chongming County, separated from Changxing to its west by the Hengsha Xiaogang Channel."Hengsha" in the ''Encyclopedia of Shanghai'', pp. 126 f.
Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers (Shanghai), 2010. Hosted by the Municipality of Shanghai. Hengsha is fairly round, with a height north-to-south of about and a breadth east-to-west of about .Office of Shanghai Chronicles. '"Dǎo, Shā"'', "Islands and Shoals" Shanghai Municipal Government (Shanghai), 2015. Accessed 12 Jan 2015. Constantly expanding, it covered about in 2010"Chongming County" in the ''Encyclopedia of Shanghai'', pp. 50 ff.
and had an average elevation of .

Land reclamation

Hengsha is the site of significant land reclamation works, with dykes constructed to its southeast in order to drain and fill approximately 100 square kilometers during the lifetime of the project.

Economy

The

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

s of Hengsha are the center for Shanghai's production of

citrus fruit ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Mandarin orange, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, ...

s. Other crops include

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

, and

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

. Both freshwater and marine fishing are practiced, principally landing two kinds of

anchovy An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the Family (biology), family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 speci ...

. The island is also being developed for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of nature-oriented tourism intended to contribute to the Ecological conservation, conservation of the natural environment, generally defined as being minimally impactful, and including providing both contributions to conserv ...

and high-end resorts, including an international conference center, communities of low-density luxury villas, and

yacht club A yacht club is a boat club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mar ...

s. One of Shanghai's commercial

cemeteries A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many dead people are buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ) implies th ...

is located on the island and the Hengsha Xiaogang Channel is also used for

sea burial Burial at sea is the disposal of Cadaver, human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship, boat or aircraft. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many di ...

s and the dispersing of ashes.

Government

Hengsha is administered as a single

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 ...

, also named Hengsha. This is divided into 24

villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

, including one fishing village. The main settlement is at Xinmin (, ''Xīnmín Jūwěihuì''). The others are: Xingsheng (, ''Xìngshèng Cūn''),
Zengchan (, ''Zēngchǎn Cūn''),
Gongping (, ''Gōngpíng Cūn''),
Hongqi (, ''Hóngqí Cūn''),
Dongbang (, ''Dōngbāng Cūn''),
Xinbeicun (, ''Xīnběicūn''),
Xinglong (, ''Xīnglóng Cūn''),
Fengle (, ''Fēnglè cūn''),
Xinchun (, ''Xīnchūn Cūn''),
Dongxing (, ''Dōngxìng Cūn''),
Xinlian (, ''Xīnlián Cūn''),
Huifeng (, ''Huìfēng Cūn''),
Xinyong (, ''Xīnyǒng Cūn''),
Minjian (, ''Mínjiàn Cūn''),
Minsheng (, ''Mínshēng Cūn''),
Yongfa (, ''Yǒngfā Cūn''),
Fumin (, ''Fùmín Cūn''),
Yongsheng (, ''Yǒngshèng Cūn''),
Donghai (, ''Dōnghǎi Cūn''),
Minxing (, ''Mínxīng Cūn''),
Jianghai (, ''Jiānghǎi Cūn''),
Minyong (, ''Mínyǒng Cūn''),
Mindong (, ''Míndōng Cūn''), and
Haihong (, ''Hǎihóng Cūn'').

Infrastructure

Unlike Chongming and Changxing, Hengsha remains connected to the rest of Shanghai only by

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

service. There are plans for a small airport to be constructed.

In popular culture

Hengsha is one of the main settings of the 2011

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

'' Deus Ex: Human Revolution'', in which it is depicted as a major metropolitan area.

References

External links

* Chongming County'
official English-language website
* at

Hudong Baike Douyin Baike (), formerly Hudong and Hoodong (), is a for-profit social network and Chinese encyclopedia owned by ByteDance. It is one of the two largest wikis in China, along with Baidu Baike. History Baike.com was founded in 2005 by CEO ...

{{China topics, state=autocollapse Islands of Shanghai Chongming District Township-level divisions of Shanghai