Xisha District 西沙区

History

The State Council approved Xisha and Nansha as Sansha's two districts on 18 April 2020, eight years after Sansha itself was set up in July 2012. Sovereignty over the Paracels is contested: the People's Republic of China, Vietnam and Taiwan all claim the islands, and the PRC has controlled the entire group since the Battle of the Paracel Islands in January 1974. The district's authority is not internationally recognised.

Setting and landscape

The Paracels lie in the northwest of the South China Sea, southeast of Hainan Island, and were anciently called Qianli Changsha (千里长沙), the "thousand-li sandbank". A Hainan Daily geography series, republished by the Sansha government, counts more than 40 islands, cays, reefs and banks spread across over 500,000 square kilometres of sea, with 22 islands and 7 sand cays giving about 10 square kilometres of land, the most of the four South China Sea island groups. Rocky Island (石岛) is the highest at 15.9 metres.

Roughly along 112 degrees east, the islands split into the western Yongle Islands (永乐群岛), the Crescent Group in English, and the eastern Xuande Islands (宣德群岛), the Amphitrite Group. A well on Ganquan Island (甘泉岛), in the Yongle group, is described as the only natural source of drinkable fresh water in the Paracels, and the series calls Gaojianshi (高尖石) on the Dongdao atoll the only volcanic-breccia island in the South China Sea.

Getting oriented

Yongxing Island, at the centre of the Paracels, is 330 kilometres from both Yulin port in Sanya (三亚) and Qinglan port in Wenchang (文昌). The series describes it as the largest of the South China Sea islands, at 2.1 square kilometres including its airstrip, with offices, a post office, a bank, shops, a weather station, a hospital, a ring road, an airport and a wharf.

Highlights

• Yongxing Island (Woody Island) 永兴岛: Seat of Sansha and of Xisha District; 330 km from Sanya's Yulin port and Wenchang's Qinglan port.
• Ganquan Island 甘泉岛: Has the only natural drinkable well in the Yongle and Xuande island groups.
• Rocky Island 石岛: Highest island in the Paracels at 15.9 m.