The Zhongsha Islands is a Chinese term for a collection of two skerries, many entirely submerged banks,

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

s, and

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

s in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

. There are in fact, no islands in the

Macclesfield Bank Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of Pratas Island and north of the Spratly Islands. It is about long from southwest to northeast ...

, the main part of Zhongsha. The

Scarborough Shoal Scarborough Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc (in Spanish language, Spanish), Panatag Shoal ( fil, Kulumpol ng Panatag, lit=serene cluster), Huangyan Island (Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin zh, c=黄岩岛, p=Huáng Yán Dǎo, l=yellow rock isl ...

, which consists of two skerries, is not contiguous with the Macclesfield Bank but Chinese sources treat them as one chain of geographical features. The whole of the region is claimed by both the PRC and the ROC, and various bits of the eastern parts are claimed by the Philippines. No country has constant control of the whole region, and there are disputes - for example, see

Scarborough Shoal standoff The Scarborough Shoal standoff refers to the tensions between the Republic of the Philippines and the People's Republic of China over the disputed Scarborough Shoal. Tensions began on April 8, 2012, after the attempted apprehension by the Philippi ...

. The PRC claim to administer the area as Zhongsha Daojiao Town, a

town 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 ...

under

Xisha District Xisha District is the municipal district of Sansha, Hainan. It administers the islands and reefs of the disputed Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoang Sa Archipelago ( vi, Quần đảo Hoàng ...

of the Sansha

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' ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

. It has one

Village-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times, due to China's large population and geographical area. The constitution of China provides for three levels of government. However in practice, there a ...

, “Zhongsha Daojiao Residential Community”. However, the seat of this town and residential community is not within the Zhongsha Islets but, in Yongxing Town .

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 ...

research has been conducted on

Walker Shoal Walker Shoal, also known as Manbu Ansha () is a shoal in the Macclesfield Bank in the South China Sea. There are no islands, no land above sea-level, no settlements, and no inhabitants in the region. The least depth shown on the nautical chart ...

.
Interesting article, but it makes NO mention of either Aquaculture research or Walker Shoal ...

Geography

The Zhongsha Islets include: To the west, near the

Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoang Sa Archipelago ( vi, Quần đảo Hoàng Sa, lit=Yellow Sand Archipelago), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. The archipelago includes about 130 small coral ...

: *

(Zhongsha Dao) **

(Manbu Ansha 漫步暗沙; ) To the east, near the Philippines: *

(Nanyan Dao 南巖島 or Huangyan Dao 黃岩島; ) ** Nanyan skerry ** Beiyan skerry * Truro Shoal (Sianfa Ansha or Shianfa Ansha 特魯暗沙; ) To the north: * Helen Shoal (Itung Ansha or Yitong Ansha 一統暗沙; ) * Stewart Shoal (Ssu-ti-wa-erh-t'e Ansha 管事暗灘; ) * Huangyan Seamount (; ) * Shixing Seamount () * Xianbei Seamount () * Xiannan Seamount () * Zhangzhong Seamount () * Zhenbei Seamount () To the south, near the

Spratly Islands The Spratly Islands ( fil, Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; zh, c=南沙群島/南沙群岛, s=, t=, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay, id, Kepulauan Spratly; vi, Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed o ...

: * Dreyer Shoal (Zhongnan Ansha, 中南暗沙; ) * Zhongnan Seamount () * Longnan Seamount () * Changlong Seamount ()

References

Township-level divisions of Hainan Sansha {{Hainan-geo-stub