Overseas territories refer to a country owned and not connected to the mainland territory, most of the past era of the great maritime era of the colonial wave leftover, Britain as the former "sun never sets empire", has the most overseas territories, covering Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, North America, South America and Antarctica 7 continents, a total of 13, then some people must have questions, does China have overseas territories?
Symbolic "Overseas Territory"
In fact, China does not have overseas territories, but in Europe, 3,000 kilometers away, there is a territory in the Arctic Circle that Chinese can freely enter and exit without a visa, and can engage in production and development there, which is also a symbolic "overseas territory".
It is located in the Arctic Ocean Svalbard, surrounded by the northern islands of Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland, with a total area of about 62,000 square kilometers and a population of about 3,000 people, Svalbard is mountainous, 60% of the territory is covered by glaciers, 30% is wasteland, and the remaining 10% is covered with plants.
Because it is located in the Arctic Circle, there are 99~141 days of polar day in summer, 84~128 days of polar night in winter, although the climate of Svalbard is very cold, but the resources are very rich, there are 164 species of plants and more than 160 species of birds, with nearly 5,000 polar bears, far more than the number of residents, the coast is rich in walrus, seals, arctic foxes and whales, etc., as well as coal, apatite, iron, oil, natural gas and other rich mineral resources.
Svalbard is composed of several islands, of which West Svalbard is the largest, accounting for almost half of Svalbard's area, its main city is Longyearbyen, located on the west coast of the island, one of the most inhabitable areas to the North Pole, Svalbard has 4 schools, a hospital, 4 hotels, and post offices and supermarkets that are also open at the polar night, and there are fewer entertainment, financial and other facilities.
Global seed bank
People travel in and out of Svalbard mainly by air and sea, Longyearbyen Airport is the only airport on the island, and at the upper end of the airport, there is a huge global seed bank, located in a rocky cave, the seed bank stores 4.5 million seed samples of the earth's crops, just to prevent the extinction of species due to environmental change and various devastating disasters.
Svalbard's ties to China
But then again, how did this treasure land of feng shui thousands of miles away from China get involved with China?
This has to start from the 12th century, the first Norwegians discovered the island, in 1596 Dutch explorers came here, only to name it the current name "Svalbard", and then, explorers from all over the world have come here, with the discovery of high-quality coal on the island, the United States, Britain, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and other countries to obtain mineral ownership disagreement, at that time European and American countries are carrying out industrial revolution, urgently need coal resources, since Svalbard has no owner, that is the seeer has a share.
In order to settle this international dispute, in 1920, the United States and 20 other countries signed the Svalbard Treaty, which stipulates that the sovereignty of the island belongs to Norway, and all signatories, on the premise of abiding by Norwegian law, enjoy the right to develop and use the island, except for any military purposes, can freely enter and exit the island without a visa, enjoy fishing and hunting rights in the area of the island and adjacent waters, the right to carry out scientific research and mineral commercial activities, and the mining rights belong to the signatory countries equally.
At this time, China was in the period of the Beiyang government, political turmoil, busy with civil war, and did not have the energy to care about what happened internationally, it was France who took the initiative to find the Beiyang warlord Duan Qirui and let him sign the treaty, at that time Duan Qirui was not interested in this distant archipelago, so far from China, and did not have the energy to run so far to develop minerals, but due to the repeated requests of the great powers, and there was no substantial harm to China, Duan Qirui reluctantly signed the treaty, which officially entered into force on August 14, 1925.
In 2004, the first Arctic research station on the mainland - the Yellow River Station was established on Svalbard, and China became the eighth country in the world to have an Arctic research station, which can engage in scientific research here for a long time and obtain first-hand information about the Arctic.