Atlas of China
Zhoushan 舟山Zhōushān
Guanyin's island, fishing harbours and lighthouses out in the East China Sea
About Zhoushan
Zhoushan is an archipelago of some 1,390 islands at the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, linked to Ningbo by a chain of sea bridges. Most visitors come for Mount Putuo, one of Chinese Buddhism's four sacred mountains and the home of Guanyin; legend says her statue refused to leave when a Japanese monk tried to carry it home. Elsewhere are the fishing port of Shenjiamen, the beaches of Zhujiajian, Taohua Island, linked with Jin Yong's martial-arts novels, and the lighthouse on remote Huaniao Island.
What to eat in Zhoushan
- Putuo Buddha tea (普陀佛茶)
Featured places in Zhoushan
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Mount Putuo 普陀山
A Buddhist island in the East China Sea, home of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion
Listed sites in Zhoushan
8 sites in Zhoushan are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Huaniao Island & Lighthouse 花鸟岛 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
The northernmost island of the Zhoushan archipelago, a small island whose blue-and-white painted village houses have earned it the nickname 'Santorini of the East', with clear-water bays, a sandy beach at South Bay and seasonal 'blue tears' of glowing plankton along the shore. - Nandong Art Valley 南洞艺谷 4A scenic area · on the map
A village in a small valley ringed by hills in Xinjian, Ganlan town, in the north of Zhoushan Island, once poor and remote and since redeveloped for rural tourism with an arts theme. - Nansha Beach, Zhujiajian 朱家尖南沙 4A scenic area · on the map
Nansha is one of the five linked sandy beaches, about 6 km in all, that line the east coast of Zhujiajian Island, just south of Mount Putuo across a narrow strait. - Shengsi Five Fishing Villages 东海五渔村 4A scenic area · on the map
A string of five fishing villages in Wulong township on the east side of Sijiao, the main island of the Shengsi archipelago: Tian'ao, Huangsha, Bianjiao'ao, Huicheng and Shiwuzhi'ao. - Shenjiamen Fishing Port Town 沈家门渔港小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
Shenjiamen, on the south-east shore of Zhoushan Island, grew up around one of China's largest fishing harbours, sheltered by Lujiazhi Island and long the centre of the Zhoushan fishery. - Taohua Island 桃花岛 4A scenic area
A hilly island of about 44 km² south of Zhoushan Island, known across the Chinese-speaking world as the Peach Blossom Island of Louis Cha (Jin Yong)'s martial-arts novels, and used as a filming location for television adaptations of them. - Fayu Temple 法雨寺 National heritage site
The 'rear temple' and second-largest of Mount Putuo's three great temples, founded in 1580 as the Haichao Hermitage and renamed after the Kangxi Emperor granted the plaque 'Tianhua Fayu' ('heavenly flowers, Dharma rain') in 1699. - Puji Temple 普济寺 National heritage site
The 'front temple' and principal Guanyin shrine of Mount Putuo, which grew out of the shrine founded for a Guanyin image that the Japanese monk Egaku left on the island, and took its present name from a plaque given by the Kangxi Emperor.
On the map
Open Zhoushan on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Zhoushan on the map