Pingtan Island

Pingtan Island (Chinese: 平潭岛; pinyin: Píngtán dǎo) also called Haitan Island (海坛岛, Hǎitán dǎo) is located in eastern coastal area in Fujian province, China. It is the largest island in Fujian, and the fifth largest island in China.

Geography

Pingtan is one of the islands defining the boundary between the East China Sea and South China Sea.

Administratively, Pingtan Island is now the main part of Pingtan County, which also includes a number of smaller surrounding islands. The county seat, Tancheng town, and most of other towns of this county, are in Pingtan Island.

Pingtan Island is located off the coast of Fujian's Fuqing City, separated from it by the Haitan Strait.

Large areas of the islands surrounding coastline have undergone land reclamation, along with large scale building and infrastructure projects. The rapid transformation of the island can be seen via Google Earth's historical imagery timeline.

World Heritage Status

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2001, under Haitan Scenic Spots, in the Mixed category (Cultural & Natural).[1]

Economy

The island relies on tourism and anticipates that foreign investment will spur economic growth. The first major bridge to cross the Haitan Strait was completed in November 2010, connecting the island to Fuqing on the mainland. Spanning 4,976 meters, it cost 1.4 billion RMB (about US $200 million) to build.[2]

A 88.5-km-long Fuzhou-Pingtan Railway (the Fuping Railway, 福平铁路), connecting Fuzhou to Pingtan Island, via Changle and a series of bridges, is under construction. The project was approved in November 2012. It was expected that the work would start by the end of the year, and would take about five and a half years.[3]

In early 2012, it was announced that a large cloud computing center would be built in Pingtan.[4]

Culture

A 430,000 square feet museum, the Pingtan Art Museum, is currently under construction in the island. The museum, designed by the Chinese-American firm MAD Studio and located on an artificial island, is scheduled for completion in 2016.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Haitan Scenic Spots - UNESCO World Heritage Centre; added to Tentative List on November 29, 2001.
  2. ↑ "Pingtan Island, a before and after story in the making". Whats On Xiamen , Inc. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  3. ↑ 福州至平潭铁路可研报告获发改委批复, 2012-11-10
  4. ↑ "China to Build Cloud Computing Center in Pingtan Near Taiwan". Hostingtecnews. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  5. ↑ "China - The museum is an island". Inexhibit. Retrieved March 9, 2015.

External links


Coordinates: 25°32′48″N 119°46′36″E / 25.54667°N 119.77667°E / 25.54667; 119.77667


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