Scarborough Shoal
The Scarborough Reef ' or Huangyan Dao (English Scarborough Scarborough Shoal Reef or, Chinese黄岩 岛, pinyin Huangyan Dǎo, Filipino / Tagalog Kulumpol ng Panatag ) is a largely sunken atoll, located in the South China Sea.
Geography
The Scarborough Reef is 19 km wide, 13 km long and covers an area of approximately 150 km ² of which 130 km ² accounts for the central lagoon. It is located 250 km off the Philippine main island of Luzon and nearly 800 kilometers southeast of the Chinese island of Hainan. 450 km to the west to find the Zhongsha Islands ( Macclesfield Bank), more than 400 km in the southwest of the Spratly Islands.
Importance
The in English as a sandbank ( Shoal ) designated reef of the atoll are a number of small islands that can be reached only at high water in the normal case and up to 3 m high rise from the sea. Main island is Nanyan (Chinese南岩, Pinyin Nanyan ) Southrock. The rocks have put together about two hectares of land area.
The area is important as a fishing ground.
In amateur radio the Scarborough Reef count as DXCC entity. As a result, previously found three radio expeditions to this reef place ( 1995, 1997 and 2007).
Although they are no islands in the strict sense, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines and the Republic of China since 1995, make a claim.
In China, the atoll is assigned to the Zhongsha Islands, a " hypothetical big community " of the prefecture-level city Sansha, which is under the Hainan province.
From the Philippines, the atoll is calculated as Kulumpol ng Panatag to the city in the province of Zambales Palauig ( as a special administrative region in addition to the 19 barangays of the city).
History
Already in 1427 the reef on a Chinese map was drawn. A variety of ships sank here, including the 1748 British cargo and passenger ship Scarborough, which gave its name to the western reef. In the 19th century fell two Australian cargo ships, a Taiwanese freighter in 1967 at the north end of the reef and 1982 Taigoon from Manila. In the 1960s, the Philippines used the reef for bomb tests.
In April 2012 there was a skirmish between Filipino and Chinese vessels, which escalated into a crisis between the two States concerned.
23 May 2012 Renmin Ribao ( "People's Daily " ) announced in Beijing that the island is under the effective control of China was complete and that they had built there an unmanned meteorological station that will regularly maintained.
Other islands in the South China Sea
- Anambas Islands
- Natuna Islands
- Paracel Islands
- Spratly Islands