The Shijing River () is a small river in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

Province of China. The tidal

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

it forms when entering the Weitou Bay of the

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 s ...

is known as the Anhai Bay (). Most of the Shijing River's basin is within the

Prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Quanzhou Quanzhou, postal map romanization, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metrop ...

Sources

The sources of the Shijing River are in the hilly area near the border of Quanzhou's Nan'an City and

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

Xiang'an District () is one of the districts of Xiamen, People's Republic of China. It is located on the mainland, and is Xiamen's easternmost district. Geography Dadeng Subdistrict of Xiang'an District is made up of offshore islands and islets including: *Dad ...

. The Shibi Reservoir (石壁水库; dam at ) constructed in 1955-1958 on the upper course of the Daying Stream () (one of the Shijing's tributaries) is used for irrigation and water supply in several towns within the county-level cities of Nan'an and Jinjiang. The reservoir also has a 1 MW hydroelectric plant.

The lower course

Anping Bridge - western section - DSCF8955

The lower course of the Shijing River, and the Anhai Bay, form the border between Quanzhou's two county-level units: Nan'an City in the west and

Jinjiang City Jinjiang () is a county-level city of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. It is located in the southeastern part of the province, on the right or south bank of the Jin River, across from Quanzhou's urban district of Fengze. Jinjiang also bor ...

in the east. The riverside

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

on the west (Nan'an) bank are Shuitou and

Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

, and on the east (Jinjiang) bank,

Anhai Anhai is a town in southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It is located in the far southern suburbs of the Quanzhou metropolitan area. and is separated by Weitou Bay () from Kinmen, which is controlled by the Republic of China on ...

and Dongshi. The famous Song-era

Anping Bridge Anping Bridge () is a Song dynasty stone beam bridge in Fujian province. It is long. Fu et al (2002), p. 185 Mao (1978), p. 6 The bridge is also known as the Wuli Bridge (, literally ''Five Li Bridge'') because its length is about 5 '' li'', whe ...

originally spanned the shallow Shijing estuary between Anhai and Shuitou. Over the intervening nine centuries, this part of the estuary has silted up, so that the bridge (now fully restored) is now in a lake of sorts, almost completely surrounded by dry land on all sides.

Anhai Bay

Further downstream, the Shijing River's estuary (the Anhai Bay) continues to exist. It is an important

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

area. As of ca. 2001, 138.5

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s of the mudflats and water surface on the bay's western (Shuitou) side were used for aquaculture; this included 37.5 ha used for raising the

blood cockle ''Tegillarca granosa'' (also known as ''Anadara granosa'') is a species of ark clam known as the blood cockle or blood clam due to the red haemoglobin liquid inside the soft tissues. It is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the eastern ...

s (''

Tegillarca granosa ''Tegillarca granosa'' (also known as ''Anadara granosa'') is a species of ark clam known as the blood cockle or blood clam due to the red haemoglobin liquid inside the soft tissues. It is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the eastern ...

'', 泥蚶), 58.3 ha used for the Chinese razor clam ('' Sinonovacula constricta'', 缢蛏), 16.2 ha used for

oyster farming Oyster farming is an aquaculture (or mariculture) practice in which oysters are bred and raised mainly for their pearls, shells and inner organ tissue, which is eaten. Oyster farming was practiced by the ancient Rome, ancient Romans as early as t ...

, and 26.5 ha used for

shrimp farming Shrimp farming is an aquaculture business that exists in either a marine or freshwater environment, producing shrimp or prawns (crustaceans of the groups Caridea or Dendrobranchiata) for human consumption. Marine Commercial marine shrimp farming ...

. Over 1400 people from Shuitou's Gangnei Village () were employed in aquaculture and fishing. Ruǎn Jīnshān; Li Xiùzhū; Lín Kèbīng; Luō Dōnglián; Zhōu Chén; Cài Qīnghǎi (阮金山;李秀珠;林克冰;罗冬莲;周宸;蔡清海),
安海湾南岸滩涂养殖贝类死亡原因调查分析
(Analysis of the causes of death of farmed shellfish on the mudflats in the southern part of Anhai Bay), 《福建水产》 (''Fujian Aquaculture''), 2005-04

Notes

{{Authority control Rivers of Fujian Quanzhou Estuaries of China