LUICHOW PENINSULA

WadeGiles romanization Lei-chou Pan-tao, Pinyin Leizhou Bandao peninsula, some 75 mi (120 km) from north to south and 30 mi east to west, jutting out from the coast of Kwangtung Province, China, and separated by a narrow 10-mi-wide strait from Hai-nan Island (Hai-nan Tao). The peninsula is curved, forming a large bay on the east coast, in which two large islandsNao-chou and Tung-haiprotect Chan-chiang Kang (bay), on which the city of Chan-chiang is situated. Administratively, the peninsula forms part of Chan-chiang Prefecture (ti-ch'). The peninsula forms part of the eastern limit of the Gulf of Tonkin, and it takes its name from the ancient city of Lei-chou (now Hai-k'ang) on the eastern coast, which was, until the rise of Chan-chiang in the 20th century, the chief city and the seat of the prefecture of Lei-chou. From 1898 to 1946 the French held a lease on an area of 325 sq mi (842 sq km) on the eastern coast, including the bay and the two large islands. Usually referred to as Kwangchowan, the French called it Kouang-Tchou-Wan. Its capital was at Chan-chiang, renamed Fort Bayard by the French. Occupied by the Japanese in World War II, it was retroceded to China by France in 1946. The peninsula consists of undulating upland with a generally low relief, dropping in steps to the sea. It is mostly formed of basalt and recent sedimentary rocks, with the cones of numerous extinct volcanoes about 825 ft (250 m) high in the northern and southern sections of the peninsula. The climate is sharply differentiated between the eastern section, which receives more than 40 in. (1,000 mm) of rainfall annually, and the west, which receives considerably less. The whole area is much drier than the neighbouring mainland or Hai-nan Island, and the climate generally is tropical with no true winter conditions; average January temperatures vary between 61 and 64 F (16 and 18 C), and June temperatures between 86 and 91 F (30 and 33 C). There is thus a high rate of evaporation. Forest belts have been planted since 1955 to reduce wind velocity across the peninsula and thus evaporation. The area was originally forested, but almost all of the forest cover, except on the hills of the north, has long since been destroyed. As a result, uncultivated areas have suffered seriously from soil erosion and are mostly covered with a type of rough savanna grassland, with shrubs and thickets growing in the valleys. The soil layer, always thin, has been completely washed away in places, often after grassland fires or overgrazing have destroyed the protective vegetation cover. In general, the area is rather poor, with little more than 20 percent of the land under cultivation. On more than a quarter of the cultivated area the crop is sweet potatoes; there is less rice grown than is usual in other parts of Kwangtung. There are some mineral deposits (e.g., manganese and mercury). The main cities are Chan-chiang and Hai-k'ang on the east coast and Hs-wen, with its port, Hai-an, at the southern tip of the peninsula. A northsouth railway connects Chan-chiang with Lien-chiang. After 1958 the Youth Canal was built from Ho-ti Shui-k'u (reservoir) near Lien-chiang southward through the outskirts of Chan-chiang to Hai-k'ang; another branch runs to the west coast.