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The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Hainan Strait in southern China.<\/p>\n
Zoom in to explore this image at its full 10 m resolution or click on the circles to learn more.<\/p>\n
The Hainan Strait, or Qiongzhou Strait, separates Guangdong’s Leizhou Peninsula on China\u2019s mainland to the north and the island province of Hainan to the south. It also connects the\u00a0Gulf of Tonkin\u00a0on the west to the\u00a0South China Sea\u00a0on the east.<\/p>\n
Although narrow and shallow, the strait is a crucial maritime passage. Zooming in, a lot of boats can be spotted as white dots in the water, especially along the route connecting Hai’an Port, at the southern tip of the peninsula, to Haikou on Hainan Island. The water along the coasts is light brown owing to sediment.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0curved Leizhou Peninsula juts southward into the South China Sea. The largest island on the east coast, Donghai, forms two bays: Leizhou Bay to its south and Zhanjiang Bay to its north. Facing both bays are cities with the same names: Zhanjiang, the largest city on the peninsula, and Leizhou, which gave the peninsula its name.<\/p>\n
Leizhou is surrounded by numerous greenhouses, visible as grey rectangles, while rice fields appear in shades of light brown, depending on the vegetation growth stage at the time of the image acquisition. The green area running along the city coast is a mixture of ponds, mangroves and mudflats.<\/p>\n
Hainan Island dominates the bottom part of the image. The name Hainan means \u2018south of the sea\u2019,\u00a0reflecting the island’s position south of the\u00a0strait. The capital Haikou can be seen in grey on the northern coast. Haikou is the island\u2019s main port, situated to the west of the mouth of the Nandu River. Flowing northeast for over 300 km before draining into Haikou Bay, Nandu is the island\u2019s longest river.<\/p>\n
Two artificial islands, still under construction, can be seen off the Haikou coast: the circular-shaped Nanhai Pearl Island and Ruyi Island, off the northeast coast. Both islands will be holiday hubs connected by a bridge to the mainland, one of which is already visible south of Nanhai.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n