Xiaodeng Island

Hong Dao, the ancestor of the Hong clan of Xiaodeng, When the Wokou invaded during the Ming dynasty, they plundered and killed the residents of Xiaodeng Island in the second year of Hongwu (1369) and the twenty-fifth year of Jiajing (1546). he has chased the secret service many times, visited Vietnam and met Mao Zedong 8 times. • Hong Xiu-fir: Militia hero, the prototype of Haixia in the feature film "Haixia", known as "the contemporary Mu Guiying." He was the mayor of Xiaodeng Township during the artillery battle of "August 23rd" and organized the transportation of ammunition, which was later praised by Zhou Enlai. == Environment ==

Geography Xiaodeng Island is located in Xiamen Bay, approximately 1.4 kilometers northwest of the land, and faces Kinmen across the sea in the south. The island is east–west oriented and resembles a Sleeping Beauty reclining in the blue waves. The topography is high in the east and low in the west, the highest point is Xiyuewei with an altitude of 28 meters. The northeast side is a steep cliff and the southwest has a slower shore beach; the coastal coast is mainly an earthen cliff, with local bedrock coast, as well as marine erosion cliffs, caves, and gullies. The geology of the island is similar to Dadeng Island, and it is a bedrock island. The island is located in the Chengbian-Baogai Mountain dynamic metamorphic mixed granite zone near Changle-Nan'ao large fault zone, and the rocks composing the island are Yanshanian igneous rock, with hard bedrock exposed on the north and south-east edges of the island. The engineering geological zoning of the island belongs to the tectonic denudation of bedrock exposed remnant mound subzone; the rest of the area is mostly covered by granite weathering remnants, which belongs to the remnant cover terrace subzone; the mud flats around the island belong to the near-shore intertidal diffuse beach subzone. There is Houbao depression on the island, which is an erosion depression and belongs to the loose rock pore water group, and is a marine accumulation formation. == Culture ==

Xiaodeng Island has a deeper Xianan culture with a unique Hokkien culture style and fishing village culture. The island also has a war culture due to the "August 23rd" artillery battle, and there are many war relics left. Besides, there are some fishing proverbs in Xiaodeng Island, such as: "Qingming xie, Guyu hou", which says that sea crabs and sea horseshoe crabs will migrate to the vicinity of Xiaodeng Island during Qingming and Guyu seasons respectively. "Xiaoshu dagan, Dashu dagan", which says that Dashu and Xiaoshu is the time when horseshoe crabs come and will go to catch the sea. Folk events Every year, on the 12th day of the 4th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, Xiaodeng Island holds the ceremony of the "Horseshoe Crab Festival" to welcome the arrival of horseshoe crabs. Fishermen prepare rich dishes on the front reef near the island and burn incense and worship the horseshoe crabs on one of the reefs called "Burning Gold Reef". There is also the traditional folk activity of tug of war. Before liberation, there was the tradition of holding a tug of war on Xiaodeng Island every year during the Spring Festival and it has continued to this day, and then it became a folk activity in the whole territory of Xiangan District. == Island construction ==

Xiaodeng Island was included in the pilot project of the old village transformation and new village in 2006, and projects such as drainage ditch, street light, road hardening and sports facilities were built, and then the island was targeted for urbanization, but it has not been realized yet. and in 2022 The island was affected by the noise pollution and exhaust pollution of the future airport, and it was classified as a no-build area in Xiamen City Village Spatial Layout Plan (2018–2035), and the village on the island will be demolished and relocated as a whole within 3 years. Transportation Land route In 1991, a round-island highway was built on Xiaodeng Island, which was connected to the Xiaodeng Island transportation pier where a battery electric vehicle was available to transport passengers. In 2021, the bridge was reinforced because it had reached a service life of 3.5 years of the bridge, and in 2022, it directly started planning the construction of the permanent bridge, which is planned to connect Xiaodeng North Road and the planned Dadeng Island's Huandao Road, 429.3 meters long and 11.5 meters wide, for electric vehicles, electric bicycles and pedestrians to cross the bridge, and it will be completed in December 2024. Waterways It is said that Qiu Shi'an built Xiaodeng dock in the late Qing dynasty on Xiaodeng Island, There are 3 wharves in Xiaodeng Island: traffic wharf, freight wharf, and Houbao deep water wharf, and 2 typhoon shelters in Qianbao and Houbao. Electricity At the beginning of Xiaodeng Island, diesel generatorss were used to generate electricity. In 1988, Dadeng Township Government invested RMB710,000 to build a submarine communication cable to Dadeng Island, which was completed on August 25 of the same year and connected to a 35kV Dadeng substation to the Xiamen power grid, in 2009, additional submarine cable was installed. In 2014, a new floating wave energy generation device developed by Jimei University was built in the sea of Dadeng Island, and the maximum power generation was 3.6 kilowatts. When General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping researched Xiaodeng Island in 2017, he also requested support for projects such as power generation on Xiaodeng Island by making project allocations. Water resources At the beginning of the Song dynasty, On April 12, 1991, the water was connected to the tap, There were also breakwaters around the island, initially 1,115 meters long on the south and north sides only, and 1,800 meters long in 1987 due to the construction of the salt farm. However, it was damaged by Typhoon (Dane) in 1999 and rebuilt in 2003, and safety improvements were made in 2019. • Education: there is Xiaodeng elementary school on Xiaodeng Island, formerly named Dadengjiang elementary school, which was founded in 1937. In 1997, the area of the elementary school was 6,437 square meters, including 1,236 square meters of the school building, with 7 classes, 269 students, and 10 employees; in 2007, the area of the elementary school was 7,563 square meters, including 1,628 square meters of the school building, with 6 classes, 168 students, 12 employees, and 49 computers. • Medical treatment: In 2005, a health clinic was built on Xiaodeng Island for full-time doctors. • Funeral: In 1995, public welfare cemetery was implemented in Xiaodeng Island, and crematoriums and cremation rooms were built and cremation was implemented in May 2004. == Resources and industry ==

Water resources There is a spring on Xiaodeng Island, but it is called Pin Quan, commonly known as the immortal well, named because the three stones seeping out of the spring are like the word "Pin", and it is gone at high tide and clear at low tide. After the establishment of Xiamen amphioxus nature reserve in September 1991, it was upgraded to the national level in April 2000 and the scope of the reserve was expanded to other islands such as Xiaodeng Island. The main industries in the sea area of Xiaodeng Island are fishing industry and aquaculture, among which fishing is mainly carried out in the sea area near the island, and fishing mainly uses methods and tools such as trawling, seining, setting, gillnetting, and triangle bindings. The depth of the fishing area is within 20 meters, and the substrate is sandy mud and mud sand, and the main products include nine shrimps, hairy shrimps, Zhou's new shrimps, spotted shrimps, and one-horned new shrimps. Besides, there are also horseshoe crabs, which are not allowed to be caught now. The farming industry is the main source of income for the residents of Xiaodeng Island, mainly farming nori, sea oysters, fish, shellfish, and shrimps, among others. Among them, the spores of Xiaodeng nori were cultivated in space with Shenzhou 7 spacecraft in 2008. Xiaodeng Island also cultured kelp from 1983 to 1991, with a total area of 100 mu of Da Deng kelp cultured in the same period, and the annual output of dried products is nearly 100 tons; green grouper was discovered and artificially cultured in 2007, with an annual output of about 10,000 tails; a new demonstration base for the construction of grouper seed innovation and industrialization project was built in 2011. Tourism resources There are rich tourism resources on Xiaodeng Island, such as the Xiaodeng Island tunnel (303 civil defense project, 1,300 meters long, dug in 1969 and completed in 1972), Bumin Iron Tree King (600 years old), Dokki Forest, Tang Dynasty Beauty Well, Xiaodeng Yingling Temple, Xiaodeng Leisure Fishing Village, etc. Among them, Xiaodeng Leisure Fishing Village is the first leisure fishery plan compiled in Fujian Province in 2005 and is the first batch in China. It is one of the first national leisure fishery demonstration bases in China and mainly focuses on grouper factory tourism projects with grouper scientific research, nursery, breeding, and ornamental projects, and the village also has resort hotels, business meetings, theme parties, expansion training, and other projects to make the island a resort base. Besides, the island tent tourism and culture festival will be held on Xiaodeng Island from July to August every year, and the seaweed tourism and culture festival will be held on Xiaodeng Island from January to November every year. == Population ==

There were 2,372 residents in Xiaodeng Island in 1989, about 2,500 in 2001, more than 2,700 in 2007 and about 3,000 in 2008, mainly with the population of surnames Qiu (moved in with Qiu Kwai at the end of the Song dynasty), Xu (moved in with Danzao in Kinmen in the Ming dynasty) and Su (moved in with Hongtang in Tong'an in the Ming dynasty), among which there are many surnames Qiu and Xu in the front fort and also Hong and Wu in the back fort. == References and notes ==