Tieshangang District 铁山港区

Setting and landscape

Across the water to the east lie the Baisha (白沙镇) and Shatian (沙田镇) towns of Hepu County (合浦县); Fucheng town (福成镇) in Yinhai District is the western neighbour, and Hepu's Zhakou (闸口镇) and Shikang (石康镇) towns adjoin it to the north. The land is flat coastal terrace plain. The shoreline runs from Nankang in the north-east to Bailong harbour (白龙港) in Yingpan, and the dolphin and the dugong, both first-class protected animals, occur in its waters.

History

Until the district was formed the area belonged to Hepu, and the district government places here the two-thousand-year-old story of the pearls returning to Hepu (珠还合浦). It also counts Tieshan Harbour among the starting ports of the Maritime Silk Road. In the Daoguang reign of the Qing, ceramics were shipped from here to Southeast Asia, and in the late Qing foreign merchants traded around the harbour of Shitoubu (石头埠). After 1949 Shitoubu was designated a strategic reserve and naval port, and in the late 1980s the State Council approved it as a border-trade port for trade with Vietnam.

Pearls and seafood

The coast holds four natural pearl beds, among them Yangmei (杨梅池) and Bailong (白龙池). Pearls from Bailong in Yingpan, known as Bailong pearls (白龙珠), are treated by the district government as the finest South Sea pearls (南珠), and most of the South Sea pearls sent as imperial tribute are said to have come from these waters. The late-Ming and early-Qing writer Qu Dajun (屈大均) described the Hepu pearl in his Guangdong Xinyu (广东新语). The pearls grow in the Hepu pearl oyster (合浦珠母贝), also called Pinctada martensii (马氏珠母贝).

Yingpan and Shitoubu are the two main fishing harbours, and Yingpan has been listed for development as a national central fishing port. Pearl farming off Yingpan and prawn farming along the Xinggang and Nankang coasts line the shore. Other farmed seafood includes oysters, hard clams, mud crabs and the peanut worm (方格星虫).

Highlights

• Bailong pearl beds 白龙池: Natural pearl bed off Yingpan whose Bailong pearls the district government ranks as the finest South Sea pearls.
• Shitoubu harbour 石头埠港: Late-Qing trading harbour, later a strategic reserve and naval port, approved in the late 1980s as a border-trade port with Vietnam.
• Yingpan fishing port 营盘港: One of the two main fishing harbours, listed for development as a national central fishing port.