Qualla: Changdao County

Changdao County: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ngguls, CC BY-SA 4.0. Until December 1, 2008, any foreigner found on the Changdao Islands was promptly escorted to the ferry terminal and placed on the next boat back to the mainland. Islanders reported all outsiders to the police, and the police explained, politely, that the high concentration of military installations made the islands off-limits to non-Chinese nationals. The restriction has since been lifted, but the archipelago's strategic significance has not changed. Thirty-two islands scattered across the southern Bohai Strait, the Changshan Islands control the only passage between the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, a chokepoint through which more than 300 large vessels pass every day.

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Image: Ngguls | CC BY-SA 4.0

Changdao County: Where Two Seas Meet

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ngguls, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Changshan Islands -- also known as the Temple Islands or the Miaodao Archipelago -- sit between the Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsulas, facing Yantai to the south and Dalian to the north, with Beijing and Tianjin to the west and South Korea and Japan across the Yellow Sea to th...

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Image: Ngguls | CC BY-SA 4.0

Changdao County: Temples, Taoists, and the Sea Goddess

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ngguls, CC BY-SA 4.0. Temple Island earned its name honestly. The island was once dense with temples, the most significant being Xianying Palace, built starting in 1122 during the Northern Song dynasty. Originally a Taoist temple dedicated to Matsu, the sea goddess, it later became Buddhist -- a trans...

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Image: Ngguls | CC BY-SA 4.0

Changdao County: Sea Cucumbers and Shrinking Populations

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Lycoo assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The islands' primary industry is aquaculture: sea cucumbers, abalone, sea urchins, scallops, kelp, prawns, and fish. Tourism provides a secondary income, with many villages operating resort hotels along their beaches. But the demographic picture tells a more complicated story. By...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Lycoo assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain