Famed island to have mainland's first ocean park
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An annual international marathon is held on the island's ring road, which will now connect all the scenic spots in the planned ocean park. Provided to China Daily |
After the plan was recently approved by the State Oceanic Administration, beaches around Xiamen Island will be consolidated to make the Chinese mainland's first ocean park.
Open free to the public, Xiamen Ocean Park will start from Xiamen University beach and extend all the way north along the island's ring road to Guanyinshan beach and Wuyuan Bay, which has an existing wetlands park. It faces the Taiwan Straits to the east.
The new park will cover almost 25 square kilometers, including 21 sq km of sea and 4 sq km of land.
With 21 km coastline that looks like the shape of a pearl necklace, the park will also connect the Hulishan battery, Calligraphy Square, Music Square, Huangcuo beach, the Xiangshan Yacht Club and Guanyinshan beach along with many islets and reefs scattered along the coast.
The city's ocean bureau said that over the next 10 to 15 years, Xiamen "will build the park into a beautiful conservation area with clear natural and ecological features that will be a high-grade eco-tourism and leisure destination for domestic and foreign travelers".
The park's blueprint calls a protected area, an ecological and resource recovery area, a scientific experimental area and a development zone.
The development area will comprise 88.5 percent of the entire park and can be used only for "appropriate tourism development".
Development is strictly prohibited in the protected area made up of natural beaches outside the island's ring road.
The ocean bureau also made it clear that buildings are not allowed on the beaches. And the city's environmental workers will increase the frequency of clearing rubbish from the sea.
(China Daily 06/01/2011 page41)
