Nei Lingding Island

In May 1513, the Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares arrived at an island near the coast of China they called "Tamão".{{refn|Braga,{{citation |last=Braga |first=J. M. |title=China Landfall 1513, Jorge Alvares Voyage to China |location=Macau |publisher=Imprensa Nacional |year=1956 |oclc=10673337 }}. cited in Cultural Heritage Assessment{{citation |title=Cultural Heritage Assessment |url=http://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_1252006/html/eiareport/Part3/Section12/sec3_12.htm}}}} This was the first contact of Europeans with China via the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope.[http://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_0812002/Final%20EIA/Html/sect_6.htm Construction of Lung Kwu Chau Jetty - Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment] Tamão was fortified by Simão de Andrade and reclaimed by the Chinese during the expulsion of the Portuguese in the 1520s.{{cite book | last1=Pires | first1=T. | last2=Cortesão | first2=A. | last3=Rodrigues | first3=F. | title=The Suma oriental of Tome Pires, books 1-5 | publisher=Asian Educational Services | series=The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires: An Account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues, Rutter of a Voyage in the Red Sea, Nautical Rules, Almanack and Maps, Written and Drawn in the East Before 1515 | year=1990 | isbn=978-81-206-0535-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h82D-Y0E3TwC | page=xxx |access-date=3 April 2022}} Western scholarship, following J. M. Braga, generally contends that this "Tamão" is Nei Lingding, the main island in the mouth of the Pearl River, 6 km off the coast of the mainland. Recent Chinese scholarship finds this identification to be insufficiently proven, however, and suggests a number of other potential islands including the nearby and far larger Lantau Island.{{cite book|last1=Jin|first1=Guoping|title=Xili dongjian : Zhong-Pu zaoqi jiechu zhuixi|script-title=zh:西力東漸 : 中葡早期接觸追昔|date=2000|publisher=Macao Foundation|location=Macau|isbn=9993710075|language=zh|pages=21–42}}

As of 1814{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Edmund|title=Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat|year=1837|publisher=Harper & Brothers|location=New York|page=69|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7317/view/1/69/}} Nei Lingding (then romanized as "Lintin") was called the "outer anchorage" for European ships traveling to Canton (Guangzhou). They would have to stop at the island, have their cargo inspected and measured by the Chinese customs officials stationed at the island, and pay customs duties. In 1821, when the Chinese government prohibited importation of opium into the country's ports, Lintin became a base for drug smugglers; hulks of old boats, anchored near the island, served as warehouses and depots where imported opium would be reloaded onto smaller boats to be smuggled into Guangzhou and other ports. Edmund Roberts visited the island in 1832, and noted that there were "seven to eight ships" smuggling opium, including American boats. From the 1830s until the cession of Hong Kong in the 1840s, Lintin Island was the main base for British merchants in the Pearl River Delta area.[http://www.howardscott.net/4/Shameen_A_Colonial_Heritage/Files/Journal.html "Shameen: A Colonial Heritage"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229013338/http://www.howardscott.net/4/Shameen_A_Colonial_Heritage/Files/Journal.html |date=2008-12-29 }}, By Dr Howard M. Scott[http://library.ust.hk/info/exhibit/maps-2002/maps-gallery5.html China in Maps - A Library Special Collection] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217071925/http://library.ust.hk/info/exhibit/maps-2002/maps-gallery5.html |date=2008-12-17 }} The island was also a stopping point during monsoon season for ship repair. Ships would stay on the island upwards of six months.

As of 1814, the population was estimated to be less than 60; in 1821, it was just under 2,000. When Edmund Roberts visited in 1832, he noted a population of approximately 5,000.

Since 1984,[http://www.szmangrove.com/englist.asp Neilingding Island-Futian National Nature Reserve of Guangdong] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412092017/http://www.szmangrove.com/englist.asp |date=2009-04-12 }} a part of the island has been designated the "Neilingding Island and Futian (福田) Nature Reserve". The reserve covers {{convert|7.8|km2|sp=us}}, including {{convert|4.5|km2|sp=us}} of land area and {{convert|3|km2|sp=us}} of mangrove forest, and was created to protect some 300 rhesus macaques and other animals, such as pangolins and pythons.[http://www.cbcf.org.cn/english/zrbhq/zn_nldft.html NEILINGDING ISLAND AND FUTIAN NATURE RESERVE] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050218161219/http://www.cbcf.org.cn/english/zrbhq/zn_nldft.html |date=2005-02-18 }}

{{portal|Islands}}

• Wai Lingding Island ('Outer Lingding Island') lies some {{convert|40|km|sp=us}} to the southeast in the Wanshan Archipelago.

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Nei Lingding Island}}

{{Islands of Shenzhen}}

{{coord|22|24|46|N|113|48|13|E|display=title}}

Category:Islands of Guangdong

Category:Islands of the Pearl River (China)

Category:Nature reserves in China

Category:Geography of Shenzhen

Category:Populated places in China

Category:Islands of China