Yonglongsha, sometimes translated as the Yonglong Shoal or Yonglong Sands, was a
former island in the north channel 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 ...
to the north of
Chongming in
eastern China. It was also known as Yongfengsha and Hefengsha.
[Office of Shanghai Chronicles. '"Dǎo, Shā"'', "Islands and Shoals" Shanghai Municipal Government (Shanghai), 2015. Accessed 12 Jan 2015. ] Prior to its absorption by
Chongming, it measured about east to west but was very narrow, with an area of about .
[
]
History
Yonglongsha first appeared in the 42nd year of Kangxi (1703) but was impermanent. It emerged most recently in 1937.[ Eroding on the south and east while growing to the north and west, it migrated from the center of the Yangtze's northern channel towards Chongming. Its shores were stabilized and expanded by workers from Haimen and Qidong, two ]county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
-level cities
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
of Nantong
Nantong 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 vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...
in 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 ...
, in the late 1960s.[ The reclaimed areas were administered at first as farmsteads. By 1968, there were 1,800 ]hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
s () under cultivation, growing corn
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
and fava beans. Another 3000 workers sent by Haimen over the next year reclaimed another by 1970. The same year, 200 households became the island's first permanent inhabitants.[ Qidong's area of the island began to merge with Chongming in 1972,][ followed by Haimen's three years later. Now its former area continues to be administered as ]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 ...
's pene-enclave 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 rather than as part 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 ...
's Chongming County. Areas of the former channel between the two islands form the North Heng Irrigation Canal p ''Běi Héng Yǐnhé''), a stretch of the canal which runs in a partial ring around Chongming Island.
A separate area of present-day Qilong derives from its absorption of a second shoal, Xinglongsha p ''Xīnglóngshā''), which likewise formed in the middle of the Yangtze's channel and then migrated over time towards Chongming.[. ]
Infrastructure
During its existence, the island had ferry service to Haimen's Lingdian Harbor ( t , s , p ''Língdiāngǎng'') and Qidong's Sanhe Harbor (, ''Sānhégǎng'').[ Its communities are now connected to Chongming's highway and ferry network, including the Chongqi Bridge to Qidong.]
See also
* 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 ...
* Haiyong & Qilong
* Islands of Shanghai
References
External links
* at Hudong Baike
{{coord missing, Jiangsu
Former islands of China
Islands of Jiangsu
Nantong