The People's Republic of China (PRC), known officially as Zhōnghuá (中华), has a lengthy coastline, many large harbors, and a large number of lighthouses. The country is divided into 23 provinces and 11 other province-level regions of various special types. The province of Fújiàn (formerly spelled Fukien or Fuchien) is located on the southeastern coast of the country, facing Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. The coastline is rugged and irregular, with many islands and reefs threatening unwary navigators. Fújiàn is divided into nine prefectural-level cities, six of them facing the coast. This page covers the prefectural-level city of Pútián on the central coast of the province. Most of the coast of Pútián is in the Xiùyǔ District, which occupies a peninsula between Xīnghuà Bay and Méizhōu Bay and includes the large island of Nánrìdǎo. Except where noted otherwise all the lights on this page are in Xiùyǔ. The Wūqiū (Wuchiu) Islands off the coast of Pútián have been under the administration of the Republic of China government on Taiwan since 1949. The lighthouse of Wūqiū is described on the Matsu and Kinmen page. There are many languages and dialects spoken in China, but Standard Chinese, often called Mandarin, is official. The pīnyīn system for transliterating Standard Chinese into Latin characters is now the international standard but some locations continue to be known also under the spellings of older transliteration systems. The Chinese word for a lighthouse is dēngtǎ (灯塔). In Standard Chinese jiāo (formerly chiao) is a reef or rock, jiǎo is a cape or headland, dǎo (tao) is an island; yǔ (tsu) or tuózi ("lump") is a small island, hǎi is a sea, wān is a bay, hǎixiá is a strait, hé or jiāng is a river, hékǒu ("river mouth") is an estuary, and gǎng (kang) is a harbor. Lighthouses in China are maintained by the PRC Maritime Safety Administration. The administration is organized in four regional administrations with district offices in the major ports. All the lights on this page are maintained by the Xiamen MSA office, which is part of the Shànghǎi Region. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. CN numbers are the MSA List of Lights (助航标志表) numbers. Admiralty numbers are from volume P of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Jiànyǔ Light, Pútián PRC MSA Shànghǎi Region photo |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Píngtán Area | East: Matsu and Kinmen | South: Quánzhōu
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Posted July 28, 2008. Checked and revised April 17, 2025. Lighthouses: 27. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.