Projectile Reef is a closed independent atoll, about 7.5 km long from east to west, 2.3 km wide from north to south, with a reef area of 16 square kilometers, of which the reef area is 11 square kilometers, and the reef plate is equivalent to subi island of the mainland garrison, located in the south of the Spratly Islands, about 400 kilometers south of Subi Island.
Projectile Reef Location Map
In the past, the largest artificial island in Nansha
Projectile Reef is China's inherent territory, and the Chinese government has indisputable sovereignty over it.
In 1979, as soon as the curtain of China's reform and opening up opened, Malaysia sent troops to occupy the projectile reef on the grounds of the extension of the continental shelf, and on June 21, 1980, Malaysia's special forces landed on the projectile reef and erected a monument to declare sovereignty.
Malaysian special forces board the mainland's projectile reef
There was nothing on the projectile reef, that is, a circle of atolls and a small sandbank, some places are exposed black stones, after being illegally occupied by Malaysia, the government quickly transported various daily necessities and construction equipment by helicopter, starting a large-scale expansion of the projectile reef.
Malaysia illegally expands projectile reefs
After more than 30 years of operation by Malaysia, the small sandbar of less than 0.1 square kilometers of Projectile Reef has been expanded into a large island with an area of 0.35 square kilometers, and before 2014, Projectile Reef was the largest artificial island in the Spratly Islands, second only to Taiping Island and Thitu Island illegally occupied by the Philippines.
Aerial view of Projectile Reef
Sovereignty disputes aside, Malaysia's management of projectile reefs is a textbook success story for China.
Malaysia has not only established a naval base on Projectile Reef, but also introduced the principle of military-civilian development and construction, vigorously developed tourism, and spent a lot of money to build a large number of luxury hotels.
Aerial view of Projectile Reef
Four characteristic tours of Projectile Reef
In the summer of 1993, Malaysia built an airport runway on the southeast side of Projectile Reef, initially about 1000 meters long, then extended to 1500 meters by extension, and soon extended to 1800 meters, with a width of 100 meters, with flights running between Projectile Reef and Sabah, Malaysia.
Projectile Reef Airport Runway
The projectile reef is beautiful, with oval-shaped atolls tumbling with silver waves, looking like an intoxicating green emerald in the air, and this jadeite is also inlaid with silver edges.
Inside the wave belt is the lagoon, the lake water is very different from the sea water outside, the outside of the deep blue water and the lagoon emerald green, light green, tender yellow lake water together constitute the color beauty of the atoll.
Colorful projectile lagoons
The Malaysian government seeks to make it a high-end tourist destination, with rooms, freshwater swimming pools, dive service centres, piers, generator rooms and desalination equipment available in the island's resort centre.
Overlooking projectile reef in the distance
The middle part of the projectile reef is a three-star resort center, with 86 rooms, as soon as you enter the resort center, you will see a swimming pool, surrounded by a circle of low wooden houses, bars and restaurants, and there are many white lounge chairs by the pool, which is very typical of the appearance of an island resort.
Projectile Reef freshwater swimming pool
Projectile Reef Resort
Projectile Reef was officially opened to the public in 1994 on the island for sightseeing, is currently the best and most full development of the entire South China Sea tourism industry, has now developed four major tourism projects, every year to the Projectile Reef vacation leisure tourists flock to an endless stream.
Feature 1: Deep Sea Diving
The beautiful underwater scenery of coral reefs and the strange shape of hammerhead sharks have made it a world-class diving mecca, Malaysia has developed more than ten deep-sea diving sites around the projectile reef, where you can enjoy beautiful corals, colorful tropical fish, and visit the submarine shipwreck, which many tourism agencies have rated as "one of the world's top ten marine diving sites".
Projectile Reef diving base
Projectile Reef diving base
Feature 2: Bird watching on Swallow Island
When Malaysia expanded the island, it occupied the sandbar where seabirds originally inhabited, and it created a new small sandbar on the reef at the eastern end of Projectile Reef and reinforced it with breakwaters to provide habitat for seabirds.
Seagulls and swallows from the north and south to shelter from the north and south inhabit here in swarms, and from March to October every year, thousands of swallows, egrets, brown, crested terns and other species of birds flock to the western end of the artificial island, or soar in the air, or gather on the lagoon reef, forming a spectacle, which is why Western navigators call the projectile reef Swallow Island.
The best time to watch birds is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day, and you can watch the birds feeding their chicks and hunting on the sea.
Pods of seabirds on projectile reefs
Special feature 3: Lagoon cruise sightseeing
The area of the lagoon is about 4.8 square kilometers, the water depth of the lagoon is extremely shallow, Malaysia in the process of reclamation and land reclamation directly excavated the sediment inside the lagoon, which not only solved the sediment required for land reclamation, but also dug deep into the lagoon, eliminating the reef inside the lagoon and facilitating the mooring of large ships.
Malaysia has set up many buoys and anchorages in the projectile reef lagoon and is equipped with many yachts for sightseeing.
Projectile Reef Marina
Yachts inside a lagoon with projectile reefs
Special feature 4: Island catering services
There are star hotels built on the island, a bit like the Development Model of "One Island, One Hotel" in the Maldives, where the hotel provides visitors with 5 meals of special food per day, providing so many times a day with a wealth of food, mainly to allow divers to maintain enough energy to consume during the dive.
Inside the Projectile Reef Hotel
The first artificial island is translocated
China's three major islands in Nansha are 36 times larger
Projectile Reef has beautiful silver-white sand beaches, lush bushes, and projectile reef is the only Nansha island reef open to the outside world, which has promoted the prosperity of projectile reef tourism.
Wooded projectile reefs
Projectile Reef has also established a successful development model for other islands in the Spratlys, that is, to develop the islands of the Spratly Islands into places that can attract people to vacation, entertainment and adventure.
The unprecedented success of the development of projectile reef has also made netizens who pay attention to the South China Sea extremely envious, because the 0.35 square kilometer projectile reef is simply a giant island compared to the stilt houses garrisoned by China, when the largest artificial island of Fiery Cross Reef in the Seven Reefs of Nansha was only 0.008 square kilometers, and the total number of high-stilt houses in Mischief, Subi and Fiery Cross was only 0.013 square kilometers, about one-27th of projectile reefs.
Nansha Seven Islands Old Reef Fort Area
Fiery Cross Reef Old Reef Fort
Old Reef Fort of Mischief Reef
Old Reef Fort of Subi Island
A large number of tourists go to Projectile Reef for sightseeing, which not only highlights the continuous presence of Malaysia in Nansha, but also earns a lot of money, which is simply a cash cow, how can people not envy?
Fortunately, the people who pay attention to the South China Sea did not wait too long, and China began a large-scale South China Sea project.
The South China Sea Island Project is by far the world's largest offshore construction project, with a large amount of engineering and a tight construction period that is rare in the world.
After the creation of the island, the largest three islands of Mischief, Subi and Fiery Heat reached an area of 12.76 square kilometers, and the area changed from less than one-seventh of the projectile reef to 36 times that of the projectile reef, and the projectile reef retreated to the fourth largest artificial island in the Nansha.
Four artificial islands in Nansha
It is better to let the sweat float the boat and not let the construction period drag on for a day
As the only construction unit, the builders of CCCC group took "rather let sweat float the ship and not let the construction period drag on for a day" as a battle slogan, and compressed the construction period of the main island to more than three months, and the main island of the three islands was completed in less than a year.
The construction period is tight, the task is heavy, and the construction conditions are extremely difficult!
CCCC employees are carrying out high-intensity work under harsh conditions of high temperature, high humidity and high salt, and General Jin Yinan and the boss of CCCC learned that more than 20 workers died in the front line due to heat stroke.
Satellite view of Fiery Cross Island
Satellite view of Mischief Island
Satellite view of Subi Island
Malaysia has been operating projectile reef for 16 years, china's three islands in Nansha are 36 times the size of projectile reef, and the land reclamation cycle is less than one year, why is the construction period so tight?
All this is only because the situation in the South China Sea is too strange and tense, and China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and its adjacent waters. Around 1947, there was no sovereignty dispute over the dotted line in the South China Sea, which China claimed.
The three United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea, from 1958 to 1973, defined various rights and interests such as exclusive economic zones, continental shelves, and ownership of seabed resources.
Countries, including China, then announced their own exclusive economic zones, territorial sea baselines and continental shelf claims. The division of rights and interests announced by neighboring countries in the South China Sea such as exclusive economic zones and continental shelves has clashed with China's nine-dash line. This is equivalent to laying a fuse.
But until the early 1970s, neighboring countries did not raise objections.
In 1968, a report was provided by an agency of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, and after the report was released, the Nansha islands and reefs were almost taken over.
What kind of report is this, so much magic?
This is a resource exploration report in the Nansha sea area, which shows:
The reserves of phosphate ore in the Nansha Islands are more than 300,000 tons.
The total area of the oil and gas storage basin is about 350,000 square kilometers, and the total potential of oil reserves is 34.97 billion tons!
The total potential of natural gas is 8 trillion cubic meters!
After such abundant resources were discovered, the neighboring countries in the South China Sea could no longer calm down, and they used the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to seize China's islands and reefs with the support of a superpower that did not join the convention.
The logic behind this is this: using the conventions promulgated later to seize China's inherent territory, but also at that time, China really did not have enough strength to control the distant Nansha, which is really a sigh.
Not to mention the large number of islands and reefs in the South China Sea, on April 10, 2012, there was a confrontation between a Chinese fishing administration vessel and a Frigate of the Philippine Navy.
The United States found that it could use the South China Sea issue to disrupt China's development rhythm and manipulated the Philippines to unilaterally initiate arbitration on January 22, 2013, over the Dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. In June 2013, the Philippine side established a five-member panel of the China-Philippines South China Sea Dispute Tribunal.
Saying that nothing has any effect, it is necessary to substantively control the waters of the Nansha Sea, and the south China Sea island-building super project came into being.
On July 12, 2016, the Hague Court of International Arbitration rendered a "final ruling" in the South China Sea arbitration case, which denied the "nine-dash line" and declared that China has no "historic ownership" over the waters of the South China Sea.
There is another important reason for the short construction period:
July to September is the Nansha typhoon season, it is best to rush before the arrival of the super typhoon to form the main island, in the international community's high attention, it is impossible to stop and rebuild the island for the second time, such international pressure is too great, we must quickly cover the momentum to complete the island building.
In fact, the island was started at the end of 2014, leaving a construction period of about half a year.
Due to the first-class technology, first-class equipment and first-class personnel.
In less than half a year, Fiery Cross Island was completed at the end of May 2015, Subi Island was roughly completed in June 2015, and Mischief Island was completed on June 8, 2015.
All of them are ready to be blown before the typhoon weather comes.
The three major islands of Nansha have a glyph-shaped structure, the so-called iron triangle, which can be completed only by the layout of Huangyan Island in China's South China Sea.
Nansha Iron Triangle location
The Nansha Islands, with a sea area of 886,000 square kilometers, have a total of 56 atolls, the small one is only about 1.5 square kilometers, and the largest Large Atoll of Reed Beach can reach an area of 7,000 square kilometers!
In fact, large islands have strong support capabilities, and the pursuit of large and strong decisions is smart.
Although there are 86 geographical monomers exposed in the Spratly Islands at annual and low tide, the largest natural island, Taiping Island, has an area of only 0.432 square kilometers, only one-tenth of Thatji Island.
The completion of the seven major islands in Nansha has fundamentally changed China's passive situation, not only enabling China to have a solid foothold, but also making China's control of various sea areas in Nansha very efficient.
Location map of the seven artificial islands
At present, the seven islands of Nansha have not yet opened for tourism, and the four characteristic tourism of projectile reef Can learn from three of the three major islands of China's Nansha, if it is really open to tourism, its attraction will be far more than that of projectile reef, but it is more expected that projectile reef will return to the motherland.
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