May 13, 2009 - Taiwan Strait

 

 

 

 

In the back of the Aquarium in front of the Taiwan Strait

Ryan and Elder Read at the Aquarium 3D Fish Adventure

 The Taiwan Strait or Formosa Strait is a 180-km-wide (111.85-mile-wide) strait between mainland China and Taiwan. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to East China Sea to the northeast. The narrowest part is 131 km (81.4 mi.) wide.

Fujian province in mainland China is to the west of the strait, while important islands like Jinmen, Xiamen, Hainan Island, and the Matsu Islands are nearby. To the east are the west coast of Taiwan and Penghu. The island fishermen use the strait as a fishing resource.

The Strait has been the theatre for several military confrontations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China since the last days of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 when the Kuomintang (KMT) forces led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek retreated across the Strait and relocated its government on its final stronghold of Taiwan.

As part of Mainland China's National Expressway Plan, a tunnel or possibly a bridge, was proposed in 2005 to link the cities of Fuzhou, Fujian on mainland China, with Taipei on Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. If such an extreme construction would ever be built, it would by far exceed the length of any man-made tunnel in the world today. Engineers in Beijing state that a tunnel is technically feasible. Taipei had refused to open direct links out of concern for the island's security and in fear that by doing so it would have to recognise Beijing's one-China policy.

The Minjiang and Jiulong Rivers empty into the strait.