Coining the Term ‘Cape’ Nanhui

'Cape Nanhui' is the southeastern-most point of Pudong (red) and the city-province of Shanghai. Map courtesy Wikipedia. By Mikey641 - File:China Shanghai location map.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50893597
‘Cape Nanhui’ is the southeastern-most point of Pudong (red) and the city-province of Shanghai (yellow). The Shanghai Peninsula could be construed to be the mainland areas of Shanghai. (Wikipedia/Craig Brelsford)

by Craig Brelsford
Founder, shanghaibirding.com

Did you know that the birding area at Nanhui is a cape? This is an aspect of Nanhui that perhaps requires more discussion. The 30-km stretch of coastline is the southeastern-most point of Pudong as well as of the entire city-province of Shanghai.

Cape Nanhui (I like the ring of that) juts out between the mouth of the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay. The cape aspect of Nanhui makes it even more valuable to migrating birds than regular coastline. Nanhui is a stepping stone, catching birds that have just made a non-stop crossing of the mouth of the Yangtze River (in fall) or a non-stop crossing of Hangzhou Bay (in spring).

I also find it interesting that one never hears of the “Shanghai Peninsula.” It’s a term with explanatory power. Although rather nubby, the Shanghai Peninsula is clearly a promontory between the mouth of the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay. Cape Nanhui is the tip of the promontory.

If conservationists talk about a nature reserve for “Cape Nanhui,” the tip of the “Shanghai Peninsula,” then maybe they will have a stronger case.

Craig talks to Pudong TV about the opportunities for conservation at Nanhui. Photo by Elaine Du.
Craig talks to Pudong TV about the opportunities for conservation at Nanhui. (Elaine Du)

Speaking of making a case: I saw the car with lettering saying “Pudong TV” and waved the journalists over. I told them I had something they might want to hear. Echoing my recent post Save Nanhui, I told the pair that Shanghai can have it all. Shanghai can be a world financial hub and China’s greatest metropolis and be a green city. It can follow Hong Kong and Singapore and develop a world-class urban wetland reserve easily accessible to nature lovers without their own car. Nanhui’s old wetland, I said, pointing to the defunct reserve behind us, could be the site of such a reserve.

As I talked, a small crowd gathered. Most seemed supportive of my ideas. I was not surprised. A world-class wetland at Nanhui is a basic conservationist idea, and basic conservationist ideas have broad appeal.
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Craig Brelsford

Craig Brelsford is the founder of shanghaibirding.com. Brelsford lived in Shanghai from 2007 to 2018. Now back home in Florida, Brelsford maintains close ties to the Shanghai birding community and continues his enthusiastic development of this website. When Brelsford departed China, he was the top-ranked eBirder in that country, having noted more than 930 species. Brelsford was also the top-ranked eBirder in Shanghai, with more than 320 species. Brelsford’s photos of birds have won various awards and been published in books and periodicals and on websites all over the world. Brelsford’s Photographic Field Guide to the Birds of China, published in its entirety on this website, is the most Shanghai-centric field guide ever written. Brelsford is a graduate of the University of Florida and earned a master's in business administration at the University of Liege, Belgium.

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