The Liu'ao Peninsula () is located in the southern part of China's Fujian Province's coast. Administratively, it is incorporated as Liu'ao Town () within Fujian's

Zhangpu County Zhangpu County () is a county of Zhangzhou prefecture-level city in far southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. The county seat is located in the town of Sui'an (). Zhangpu is bordered by the Longhai City in the north, the counties ...

Geography

Liu'ao Peninsula is about 12 km long, stretched along the north-south axis. In the north, it is connected to the mainland by a fairly narrow isthmus. Its western coast is separated from Fujian's mainland by the shallow Jiuzhen Bay; its eastern coast and southern coasts face the open sea (

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a ...

). Most of the peninsula is flat and sandy. However, it also incorporates several rocky hills. It is the outlines of these hills which may have given the peninsula its name, which means "six '' ao''".

History

During the Hongwu Emperor reign, a fortress was constructed at the foot of one of the hills of the Liu'ao peninsula, a bit inland from the main business district of today's Liu'ao town. This was part of a concerted program to fight the ''

wokou ''Wokou'' (; Japanese: ''Wakō''; Korean: 왜구 ''Waegu''), which literally translates to "Japanese pirates" or "dwarf pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century to the 16th century.

'' pirates; other fortresses built at the same time period include

Chongwu Chongwu Town (China), Town () is a List of township-level divisions of Fujian, township-level division of Hui'an County, Quanzhou Prefecture-level city, Fujian Province, China. Chongwu Town is in the southeastern part of Hui'an County, on a peni ...

(in

Hui'an County () is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Quanzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China. It is situated in the middle of the Fujian coast, between Quanzhou and Meizhou Bay. The county has a population of 921,794, as of ...

) and Pucheng. While little remains of the old Liu'ao fortress, a section of its wall has been restored, and is preserved as a historic site called Liu'ao Old Walled Town ().

Economy

Historically, the peninsula's economy was based on fishing and farming. Root crops, such as sweet potatoes, onions, and radishes are grown widely in its sandy soil. In the 21st century, a large number of wind turbine towers have been erected on the peninsula's windy west coast. Projects exist for constructing offshore wind towers as well.China to build first offshore wind farm
29 January 2013

Notes and references

{{coord, 23.9371, N, 117.7459, E, source:wikidata, display=title Township-level divisions of Fujian Peninsulas of China Zhangzhou