It was August when l went to the Nanji Island.a time of year when the island is at its most beautiful.It was around the time of the full moon and friends who had been there before told me that this was the best time to visit;that the seawater then was clear and blue,that it was the best time for lying on the beach listening to the waves and gazing at the round moon,or looking at the distinct water levels on the reefs at low tide and examining the richly colored shells.When autumn and winter come,the water turns a little yellowish and turbid.For most of the year,this part of the sea is influenced by the Warm high-saline Kuroshiro Current and the cooler and 1ess saline waters of the South China Sea;in winter it also comes under the influence of low-temperature and low-salt water from the northern part of the East China Sea.

Naturally,the warm current from Taiwan and the coastal waters along Zhejiang Province to the west also affect the nature of the Water. As a result,as soon as autumn and winter arrive,the number of tourists drops off and business people depart, leaving behind only some 2,000 locals who earn a living from fishing. Occasionally, scholars studying ecology may come for research. This is the time when the Nanji lsland"goes into hibernation," quietly waiting for prosperity to come around again next summer.

When I got off the ferry at the Nanji Island dock, I immediately rushed to Dasha'ao Beach,a stretch of fine and soft shell sand 800 meters long and 600 meters wide. It is the only sand of this type in China,indeed it is a rare phenomenon anywhere in the world.

The southern cape of Dasha'ao is the core area of the beach reserve area.Facing the beach is the famous Longchuan Reef. A kind of black-leaf sargassum,the only kind in the world,is found here at the core reserve on this reef island.

In 1990,the Nanji Island was among China's first batch of five national marine nature reserves. In December l998,the area became China's only marine life reserve designated as a part of UNESC0'S world network of bio-sphere reserves.

Tropical mollusca such as pearl oyster and tortoise-shell that are common around Hainan Island are not found along the coast of Fujian,but they do live among the Nanji Island off the coast of the more northerly Zhejiang. The strange thing is that these tropical mollusks cannot be found in the waters either north or south of the Nazi Island. Similarly,tropical algae not found in more southerly waters are present in the Nanji Island,but do not exist to the northern areas of the Najin.There are many such examples,the  reason lying in the fact that warm currents from Taiwan mix with offshore currents along the Zhejiang coast,making this region rich in tropical,sub-tropical and temperate marine life.

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