The Paracel Islands have been China's sacred territory since ancient times, but they have been repeatedly violated.
In 1956, South Vietnam invaded and occupied The Paracel Coral Island, and on January 17, 1974, it invaded Ganquan Island and Treasure Island one after another.
On January 19, 1974, four small ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy and four large American warships of South Vietnam that provoked the war broke out, and at a critical moment, two Chinese support ships successfully rushed to participate in the battle, defeating the invading army in one fell swoop.
During the Battle of Paracel, the Vietnamese sides participated in the battleships
After the naval victory, the Chinese Navy took advantage of the victory to recover the three islands of Coral, Ganquan and Jinyin that had been illegally occupied, and expelled all the South Vietnamese forces entrenched in the Paracel Islands, and there was no more war in the Paracel Islands.
Stunning Paracel, Maldives, China
The Paracel Islands are one of the four major archipelagos in the South China Sea.
From North Reef in the north, to Pioneer Beach in the south, from Xidu Beach in the east to Zhongjian Island in the west, with a total area of about 10 square kilometers, a total of 22 islands, 7 sandbars, 8 atolls, 1 taiwan reef and 1 reef.
The core area of the Paracel Islands
Speaking of the Paracel Islands, many people will recall the description in the primary school Chinese textbook "The Rich Paracel Islands":
Located on the important route of the Maritime Silk Road, the Paracel Islands are full of colors and magnificent waters.
Previously, the Xisha had been developing in a disorderly manner, and the intensity of development was not large, but the pollution of islands and reefs and the destruction of vegetation were shocking.
On July 24, 2012, with the approval of the State Council, Sansha City was established on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, with an area of more than 2 million square kilometers, making it the largest prefecture-level city in China.
Sansha, the southernmost prefecture-level city in China
After the establishment of Sansha City, the changes in the Xisha Islands are simply a thousand miles, after ten years of development, the Xisha Islands have come back to life, and various styles of islands can be found in the Xisha Islands, which can be called China's Maldives.
If subdivided, it can be roughly summarized into the following four styles represented by the following islands.
Woody Island, urban style
Originally a deserted island reef, Woody Island was originally a deserted island reef, but in March 1956, 250 pioneers went to Xisha to exploit bird fertilizer resources, kicking off China's development of Xisha.
Pioneer of the first Xisha development
In the vast South China Sea, such a natural island as Yongxing Island is very rare, and Sansha became the capital of a prefecture-level city after the establishment of the city, and in just a few years it has undergone earth-shaking changes.
Government buildings, schools, banks, post offices, hospitals, shops, hotels, libraries, airports, wharves and ports, weather stations, garrison bases and other supporting facilities for production and life have been erected on the island, and the original island reef that was originally inaccessible has become a new island new city.
Aerial view of Woody Island
Aerial view of Woody Island
After the establishment of Sansha City, Woody Island underwent several rounds of expansion, and the area also expanded from 2.13 square kilometers at the beginning of the establishment of the city to 3.16 square kilometers, expanding by 1.03 square kilometers.
Satellite view of the initial expansion of Woody Island
Woody Island is the main expansion area
Woody Island and Stone Island were originally connected by an 800-meter artificial stone embankment, which has long been replaced by a modern two-lane road with bright street lights on one side of the road due to the expansion.
Road between Woody Island and Stone Island
Woody Island's way to the airport
East Island and Jinqing, tropical jungle style
With an area of more than 1.7 square kilometers, Xisha East Island is the second largest island in the Xisha Islands, which does not have the urban style of Woody Island, but it is the appearance of Xisha Island.
The East Island is densely forested, with a vegetation coverage rate of more than 95%, and more than 20 kinds of native tree species include maple tree, grass sea tree, silver hair tree and other plants. In addition, there are a large number of artificially planted coconut trees and casuarina.
Aerial view of the East Island
The island is rectangular in shape, with a length of about 2.4 kilometers and a width of about 1 kilometer, and there are nearly 6 kilometers of white sand beach around the island, which is beautifully landscaped.
White sand beaches on the East Island
In Xisha East Island is a large island, the island ecological environment is good, therefore, here has become a bird paradise, inhabited by more than 40 kinds of birds, the number of tens of thousands, known as "bird island".
, bison, and coriander flowers are known as the Three Treasures of The East Island, and the most impressive thing is undoubtedly the herd of bison on the island.
In the early 1950s, the Xisha garrison found small and thin bison on the East Island, which according to research, were brought into the East Island by exiles in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Later, several strong cattle were transported from Hainan Island, and the "bison" breeds that were bred after mating were strong and ran rapidly, with a total of hundreds of them.
A stout herd of "bison" in the East Island
With an area of 0.21 square kilometers, Jinqing Island is a natural haven.
According to the literature of the late Qing Dynasty:
Judging from the thick trunks that have gradually carbonized everywhere on Jinqing Island, the situation recorded in the literature is true, once Jinqing Island grew a large number of tall trees, and now there are no such tall trees on the island, which shows that the plants on Jinqing Island have been destroyed and deserted for a period of time.
Thick tree trunks on the beach of Jinqing Island
The old fishermen recall that Jinqing Island was also extremely deserted, the vegetation on the harsh white sand was sparse, and the simple houses were also dilapidated and felt like "primitive villages", which also proved that the island was once deserted.
After Sansha was established as a city, 20,000 trees were planted on Jinqing Island in 2017 alone, and the green coverage rate returned to more than 90%, and the style of East Island was reproduced.
Lush tropical vegetation such as croissant trees, maple trees, coastal trees, honeysuckle trees, grass sea trees, casuarina, etc., are lush and beautiful.
A corner of Jinqing Island
Silver Island, modern fishing village style
The large islands in Xisha have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the changes in the tiny sand islands are even more shocking.
At just 0.01 square kilometers, Yagong Island has more than 100 resident fishermen, and Yinyu Island, which is smaller than Yagong Island, also has dozens of resident residents.
Yinyu island is a small sandbar with an area of only more than 6100 square meters, and long ago, only a dozen bachelors who fished lived here temporarily, and with the construction of Sansha City, it has become a small and famous miniature fishing village.
Location map of Silver Island
Aerial view of The Silver Island UAV
When tourists arrive, Silver Island is like a bustling market town
Seeing this, don't think that the Xisha Islands only have tourism, Xisha also has a desert island of "birds do not nest, fishermen do not go to the island", growing a pair of eyes of the South China Sea, which can be said to be a high-tech style.
Paracel Satellite Observatory
In 15 years, more than 100 times to help China's aerospace
In 2007, China decided to build a single island satellite observatory and the southernmost deep-sea land-based observatory in the motherland, and after site selection, it finally settled on a desolate island with an area of less than 0.5 square kilometers at the time.
In the past, the builders of the Paracel Islands were all fishermen who cultivated the sea and herded fish, and with the construction of China's only deep-sea land-based observation station, the Xisha Islands also ushered in a batch of high-tech talents.
They cherish the dream of the motherland's aerospace, far from the comfortable and comfortable urban environment, and use their youth and sweat to water the flowers of chasing the stars and chasing dreams on the Xisha Island.
Paracel Satellite Observatory
On November 5, 2021, the Paracel Satellite Observatory ushered in the "100th" mission.
At 10:19 a.m. on November 5, the Long March 6 rocket shot straight into the sky from the Taiyuan satellite launch site on the mainland and successfully sent the satellite into the intended orbit.
In the Xisha Satellite Observatory, which was 3,800 kilometers away from the observation mission, the screen lit up with "Warmly Celebrating the Successful Completion of the 100th Observation Mission of the Xisha Satellite Observatory", and the audience resounded with warm applause.
Paracel Satellite Observatory
Since then, according to public reports by authoritative media, the Xisha Satellite Observatory has carried out the following tasks:
At 18:12 on December 24, 2021, the Long March 7 carrier rocket launched the 12th satellite 01 and 02 satellites, and the Xisha Satellite Observation Station found and captured the target in time, uploaded valid data to the center, and successfully completed the observation mission.
At 11:11 on December 26, 2021, China successfully launched the Resource 1 02E satellite at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center with the Long March 4 C rocket. The Xisha Satellite Observatory in the South China Sea discovered and captured the target in time and successfully completed the observation mission.
The Resource One 02E satellite was launched
At 11:06 on February 27, 2022, the mainland successfully launched 22 satellites with a Long March 8 rocket at the Wenchang Cosmodrome.
This is the first mission of Wenchang Cosmodrome in 2022, and all the astronauts of the Xisha Satellite Observatory at the southernmost tip of the motherland have successfully completed this observation mission with full enthusiasm and rigorous style, and won the opening!
The Long March 8 rocket was launched
At 17:50 on March 29, 2022, the mainland successfully launched the Pujiang-2 and Tiankun-2 satellites at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center with the Long March 6 rocket.
At 2:16 a.m. on April 16, 2022, the mainland successfully launched the atmospheric environment monitoring satellite with the Long March 4 C carrier rocket at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
At 1:56 a.m. on May 10, 2022, the Long March 7 Yao-5 carrier rocket took off from the Wenchang Cosmodrome.
A corner of the Paracel Satellite Observatory
In April 2022, the Xisha Satellite Observatory, which is far away in the southernmost part of the motherland, all found and captured the target in time, and successfully completed the satellite observation mission.
Staff of Xisha satellite monitoring and control station
At 10:44 on June 5, 2022, the Long March 2F Yao 14 carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou 14 manned spacecraft was ignited and launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, and a day later, the Shenzhou 14 astronauts successfully entered the space station in a group, and the takeoff section of the core capsule they stationed in was also observed by the Xisha Satellite Measurement and Control Station.
Xisha satellite measurement and control station has been built for 15 years, and has helped China's aerospace more than 105 times.
You should know that 15 years ago, the island only had white sand and sparse vegetation, and the surrounding area was full of coral stones.
After taking root here, the Xisha astronauts and other builders planted trees and grass on the island, transformed the water supply system, hardened the roads, built vegetable greenhouses, and built the former barren island into a high-tech bustling town.
This small island in The Paracel is too burning.
Do you know this small island of Paracel? It doesn't matter if you don't know, as long as you know that there are a group of Xisha astronauts who are unremittingly struggling on the road of exploring the vast universe, developing the space industry, and building a space power.
The rich Paracel Islands are the place where our ancestors have grown up for generations.
With the development of the motherland's construction cause, the lovely Paracel Islands will surely become more beautiful and richer.
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