Zhongshan Island

Zhongshan Island

Native name: 中山岛
The Cross-Border Industrial Area Frontier Building is an immigration checkpoint connecting Macau and Zhuhai; note the two flags.
Satellite map
Geography
Location	Pearl River Delta
Coordinates	22°11′56″N 113°32′46″E
Adjacent to	Pearl River Xi River
Area	1,055 km2 (407 sq mi)
Area rank	322nd
Highest elevation	92 m (302 ft)
Highest point	Guia Hill
Administration
China
Province	Guangdong
Prefecture-level cities	Zhuhai (part) Zhongshan (part)
Macau (special administrative region of China)
Parishes	Nossa Senhora de Fátima Santo António São Lázaro Sé São Lourenço
Demographics
Population	3,600,000 (2020)
Population rank	34th
Pop. density	3,400/km2 (8800/sq mi)
Languages	Cantonese Mandarin Macanese Portuguese Zhongshan Min English
Ethnic groups	Han Chinese (Cantonese, Hakka) Zhuang Macanese
Additional information
Time zone	China Standard Time and Macau Standard Time (UTC+8)

Zhongshan Island
Traditional Chinese	中山島
Simplified Chinese	中山岛
Literal meaning	Named for Sun Yat-sen
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngshān Dǎo Wade–Giles Chung-shan Tao IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.ʂán tàʊ]

Former names
Macao Island
Traditional Chinese	澳門島
Simplified Chinese	澳门岛
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Àomén Dǎo Wade–Giles Ao-mên Tao
Xiangshan Island
Traditional Chinese	香山島
Simplified Chinese	香山岛
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiāngshān Dǎo Wade–Giles Hsiang-shan Tao

Zhongshan Island (Chinese: 中山岛, JUNG-shawn), formerly also known as Macau Island or Xiangshan Island, is a river island on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, China. This area is separated from the rest of the river delta by the Xi River and Shiqi River, and consists of portions of three cities with a combined population of approximately 3.6 million as of 2020: Macau, Zhuhai and Zhongshan. This places Zhongshan Island among the world's most populous islands, similar to Shikoku or Puerto Rico.

At the southern tip of the island is the Macau Peninsula, with more than 500 thousand people. The remainder of the island (and more than 80% of the population) is part of Zhongshan (approximately 1.8 million people) and Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai (approximately 1.3 million people).

China considers the island to have been linked to the continent and no longer an island since the time of the Ming dynasty (14-17th century). There are also studies which state the area was a group of islets and shoals by the time of the Ming dynasty. However, this has been debated as Zhongshan Island still remains separated from the continent by the Pearl River from three sides and the ocean from the fourth side. If counted as an island, it is the second most densely populated island in China.

A map of the Pearl River estuary in 1863. Zhongshan Island, on the lower left corner, is labelled as Macao Island, and separated from the mainland by the Shiqi River (labelled as "Hong Shan or Broadway River").

Auguste Borget's 1842 ''Macao from the Forts of Heang-shan''

View of Zhongshan Island seen from the Zhujiang River Estuary.

The city of Zhongshan and the island are named for Sun Yat-sen, who used the pseudonym 中山樵 (Nakayama Kikori) in Japanese, the first two characters are 中山 (Zhōngshān) in Chinese.