Jintang Island is an island in the Zhoushanprefecture-level city in China's northeastern Zhejiang province. It has a population of about 41700. It is one of the closest islands to the continental shore of Zhejiang, being only from the southern Ningbo Beilun port and from the eastern Zhoushan Island. Jintang is Zhoushan's fourth largest island with an area of.
History
The name Jintang Island is literally translated as "Golden Pond Island". It derived its name from the two ponds built on the western side of the island by the locals to prevent erosion of the western coastline. The soil of the inner pond coastline became fertile and rich in minerals, bringing about bountiful harvests to the locals who dub the island "Golden Pond".
Industries
fact|Jintang Island is largely an agricultural community. Its thriving industries include farming, fishing and furniture production. It is most famous for the production of Jintang Plums, a local fruit. The fruit has received a number of awards and accolades, earning a Zhejiang ProvinceHigh Quality Agricultural Product Exhibition Silver Award in 1998 and subsequently a Gold Awardin 1999 when the island was also conferred the namesake of "Jintang Plum Township " by the provincial government. Jintang Island coastal waters produce a large number of marine products, such as squid, cuttlefish, fish, and more.
Transportation
Transport between Jintang and Zhoushan is made by boat. In April 2006 work began for the construction of two bridges, the Xihoumen Bridge and Jintang Bridge connecting Zhoushan Archipelago with the country's continental area, an improvement long-awaited by Zhoushan people. They are scheduled to be completed in 2008. The two bridges are the second phase of a huge "continent-island joint project" launched by Zhoushan in 1999 to link the archipelago with the mainland through five bridges. Construction of the other three bridges have been completed.
Xihoumen Bridge
The 5.3-kilometer-long Xihoumen Bridge, linking Jintang and Cezi, two major islands of the archipelago, is a suspension bridgeconsisting of a 2.6-kilometer sea-crossing bridge and 2.7-kilometer side joint sections on both ends, costing 2.48 billion yuan. It allows the passage of ships of 30,000 dead weight tonnage.
Jintang Bridge
The Jintang Bridge, linking Jintang Island and Zhenhai, will be long. The 7-billion-yuan project consists of an sea bridge and joint sections totaling. On 27 March 2008, there has been an accident involving a Taizhoufreighter that hit the bridge construction site. Two pieces of reinforced concrete from the bridge weighing 3000 tons each got stuck in the cockpit of the freighter, which was moving at a fast pace. The accident will result in further delay to the completion of its construction. There are plans by a Sino-Italian consortium to build an archimedes bridge in the Jintang strait. is also planning to build a proposed 12 container berths worth 10 billion yuan in future at Jintang Island in anticipation of fierce competition from Shanghai's .
