Money Island, Paracel Islands
{{Short description|Island in the South China Sea}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2011}}
File:Money Island (Paracel Islands) 2023-04-04.jpg in 2023]]
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Money Island
| coordinates = {{Coord|16.446225|111.507756|display=inline,title}}
| pushpin_map = South China Sea
}}
Money Island"Money Island (Approved)" {{GEOnet2|32FA8831BE2E3774E0440003BA962ED3}}, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ({{zh|c=金银岛|l=money island}}; {{langx|vi|Đảo Quang Ảnh}}[http://en.seasfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52 "The Indisputable Sovereignty of Viet Nam over the Paracel Islands"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514223545/http://en.seasfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52 |date=May 14, 2014 }} Published online in Vietnamese on January 30th, 2011, by the National Committee for Border Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, translated by Nguyễn Trịnh Đôn, Southeast Asian Sea Research Foundation) is the southwesternmost island in the Crescent Group of the Paracel Islands archipelago. It rises to a height of 6 metres and is covered with brush.National Imagery and Mapping Agency (2002) [http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/pollux/pollux.nss.nima.mil/NAV_PUBS/SD/pub161/161sec01.pdf "South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand – Central Part: Paracel Islands"] Sailing Directions (enroute): South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand (8th edition) National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Bethesda, Maryland, {{OCLC|50280301}} At the eastern side of the island lies an extensive reef, which contains a central lagoon, but the reef is mostly submerged at high tide. Inside the lagoon, the open areas range in depth from {{convert|7|to|20|m}}. The sand cay at the southeastern extremity of reef is the reef's highest point. The channel between Money Island's reef and Antelope Reef is about {{convert|1.5|mi}} wide. The reef continues around to the north side of the island. There is a small reef on the south side with a man-made channel cut through it to the beach.
Money Island was named after William Taylor Money,{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/money-william-taylor-1769-1834|title = MONEY, William Taylor (1769-1834), of Walthamstow, Essex. | History of Parliament Online}} the Superintendent of the Bombay Marine (a forerunner of the Royal Indian Navy) from 1803 to 1810. The name was conferred by the British surveyor of the Paracel Islands Captain Daniel Ross. Ross's ship, the Antelope, gave its name to the nearby Antelope Reef. The Chinese names (e.g. Jin Yin Dao for Money Island) are simple translations of the English names. The Vietnamese name Quang Ảnh dates from 1815 when the commander Phạm Quang Ảnh led the expedition to the islands in the reign of Emperor Gia Long.Sơn Hồng Đức. "Thử khảo-sát về Quần-đảo Hoàng-sa". Sử Địa XX, 29, 1975. pp 190-2
Claim to the island, as part of the Paracels, has been made by the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Vietnam. While the island is uninhabited, patrols are made by the Navy of the People's Republic of China, who have built a fisherman's rest area there.[http://hoangsa.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=10019 "Hình ảnh nhà trên đảo Quang Ảnh do TQ xây cho ngư dân nghỉ ngơi" ("Photo Money Island Fisherman's Rest built by China")] Trung tâm Dữ liệu Hoàng Sa (Data Center for Paracel Islands) It is believed that the south channel was cut by Chinese naval personnel.