Sansha 三沙市

Setting and landscape

The Paracels, historically called Qianli Changsha (千里长沙), lie in the northwest of the South China Sea, southeast of Hainan Island. Of the South China Sea's four island groups they have, Hainan Daily notes, the most land above water, 22 islands and seven sand cays, split at about 112° east into the western Yongle (永乐群岛) and eastern Xuande (宣德群岛) groups. The Zhongsha reefs are almost all submerged; only the south of Huangyan Island (黄岩岛, Scarborough Shoal) shows above the sea. The Spratlys, the old Wanli Shitang (万里石塘), which Hainan Daily calls the southernmost and most widely scattered group, have more than 230 islands, cays, reefs, shoals and banks.

History

The three archipelagos were earlier run by a county-level authority on Yongxing under Guangdong; it passed to Hainan in 1984 and was raised to prefecture level as Sansha in 2012, with Xisha District (西沙区) and Nansha District (南沙区) created in April 2020. The city's authority is not internationally recognised: Vietnam claims two of its three island groups, and the Philippines joined Vietnam in protesting against its founding. Coastal people of Hainan set down their sailing experience in hand-copied route books, the Genglubu (更路簿), and this route knowledge (南海航道更路经) entered the national intangible-heritage list in 2008 for Wenchang (文昌).

What to see

Yongxing, by Hainan Daily's account the largest of the South China Sea Islands (南海诸岛), has offices, a post office, a bank, shops, a hospital, a ring road, an airport and a wharf. Ganquan Island (甘泉岛) in the Yongle group has, according to Hainan Daily, the only well in the Paracels whose water can be drunk as drawn. The Sansha government invites visitors to a flag-raising ceremony, coral-stone houses (珊瑚石屋) and fishermen's craft workshops, and to decode the Genglubu, which it calls the 'heavenly book of the South China Sea' (南海天书); it cites underwater visibility of 30 to 40 metres.

Getting oriented

Yongxing is 330 kilometres from both Sanya's Yulin port (榆林港) and Wenchang's Qinglan port (清澜港), and planes and ships link it with Hainan Island. Tourists arrive on cruise ships, among them the Changle Gongzhu (长乐公主) on Paracel routes.

Highlights

• Yongxing Island (Woody Island) 永兴岛: Seat of Sansha, with an airport, wharf, hospital and ring road.
• Ganquan Island 甘泉岛: In the Yongle group; Hainan Daily says it has the only well in the Paracels whose water can be drunk as drawn.
• Genglubu route books 更路簿: Hand-copied sailing guides of Hainan's coastal people; the route knowledge is on the national intangible-heritage list (Wenchang, 2008).