Qixingyan or Ch'ihsingyen (), also known as the Vele Rete rocks, is a group of

coral island A coral island is a type of island formed from coral detritus and associated organic material. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas, typically as part of a coral reef which has grown to cover a far larger area under the sea. Ecosystem ...

s in the

Bashi Channel The Bashi Channel is a waterway between Y'Ami Island of the Philippines and Orchid Island of Taiwan. It is a part of the Luzon Strait in the Pacific Ocean. It is characterized by windy storms during the rainy period, June to December. The Bash ...

, located off the southern coast of

Pingtung County Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The island group is composed by seven

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

s. Qixingyan is shaped like the

Big Dipper The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...

, hence the name "Seven Star Reef". It is about from the southernmost point of

Eluanbi Cape Eluanbi or Oluanpi, also known by other names, is the southernmost point on the island of Taiwan. It is located in within the Hengchun Township in Pingtung County. Names ''Éluánbí'' is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pr ...

. Due to strong currents and shoals in the area, many ships were wrecked and lives lost in the early to mid-19th century after the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

court opened trade between the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Notable shipwrecks include the 1867 US merchant ship ''Rover'' that resulted in the

Rover incident The ''Rover'' Incident ( or ) occurred on 12 March 1867 when the American merchant ship ''Rover'', captained by Joseph Hunt who was accompanied by his wife Mercy G. ''Beerman'' Hunt, and en route from Swatow to Newchwang, was wrecked off the c ...

and the 1871 Japanese merchant vessel ''Ryukyu'' which resulted in the

Mudan incident The Mudan incident of 1871 (、 Japanese: 宮古島島民遭難事件、 Japanese: 琉球漂流民殺害事件) was the massacre of 54 Ryukyuan sailors in Qing-era Taiwan who wandered into the central part of Taiwan after their ship shipwrec ...

.詮達文教∣高中館∣Free區
七星礁

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References

Landforms of Pingtung County Coral reefs Reefs of Taiwan {{Taiwan-geo-stub

See also

References