Zhongsha Islands

The Zhongsha Islands is a Chinese term for a collection of two skerries, many entirely submerged banks, seamounts, and shoals in the South China Sea. There are no islands in the Macclesfield Bank, the main part of Zhongsha. The Scarborough Shoal, which consists of two skerries, is not contiguous with the Macclesfield Bank, but Chinese sources treat them as one chain of geographical features. The whole of the region is claimed by both the PRC and the ROC, and various bits of the eastern parts are claimed by the Philippines. No country has constant control of the whole region, and there are disputes, such as the Scarborough Shoal standoff.

The PRC claims to administer the area as Zhongsha Daojiao Town (Template:Zh), a town under the Xisha District of the Sansha prefecture-level city in Hainan. It has one Village-level division, Zhongsha Daojiao Residential Community. However, the seat of this town and residential community is not within the Zhongsha Islets, but on Woody Island.

Aquaculture research has been conducted on Walker Shoal (Template:Zh).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geography

The Zhongsha Islets include:

To the west, near the Paracel Islands:

• Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha Dao)
  • Walker Shoal (Manbu Ansha 漫步暗沙; Template:Coord)

To the east, near Luzon:

• Scarborough Shoal (Nanyan Dao 南巖島 or Huangyan Dao 黃岩島; Template:Coord)
  • Nanyan skerry
  • Beiyan skerry
• Truro Shoal (Sianfa Ansha or Shianfa Ansha 特魯暗沙; Template:Coord)

To the north:

• Helen Shoal (Itung Ansha or Yitong Ansha 一統暗沙; Template:Coord)
• Stewart Shoal (Ssu-ti-wa-erh-t'e Ansha 管事暗灘; Template:Coord)
• Huangyan Seamount (Template:Lang; Template:Coord)
• Shixing Seamount (Template:Lang)
• Xianbei Seamount (Template:Lang)
• Xiannan Seamount (Template:Lang)
• Zhangzhong Seamount (Template:Lang)
• Zhenbei Seamount (Template:Lang)

To the south, near the Spratly Islands:

• Dreyer Shoal (Zhongnan Ansha, 中南暗沙; Template:Coord)
• Zhongnan Seamount (Template:Lang)
• Longnan Seamount (Template:Lang)
• Changlong Seamount (Template:Lang)

External links

• China Focus: South China islands see green transformation