Zhongshan Island (, ), formerly also known as Macau Island"Zhongshan". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (6th ed.). Columbia University Press. 2000. Retrieved 23 June 2016. or Xiangshan Island, is a river island on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, China."The History of Xiangshan " (15 October 2008). Zhongshan Government. Retrieved 13 March 2022. This area is separated from the rest of the river delta by the Xi River and Shiqi River, and consists of portions of three cities with a combined population of approximately 3.6 million as of 2020: Macau, Zhuhai and Zhongshan. This places Zhongshan Island among the world's most populous islands, similar to Shikoku or Puerto Rico.
At the southern tip of the island is the Macau Peninsula, with more than 500 thousand people. The remainder of the island (and more than 80% of the population) is part of Zhongshan (approximately 1.8 million people) and Xiangzhou District of Zhuhai (approximately 1.3 million people).
China considers the island to have been linked to the continent and no longer an island since the time of the Ming dynasty (14-17th century). There are also studies which state the area was a group of islets and shoals by the time of the Ming dynasty. However, this has been debated as Zhongshan Island still remains separated from the continent by the Pearl River from three sides and the ocean from the fourth side. If counted as an island, it is the second most densely populated island in China.
The city of Zhongshan and the island are named for Sun Yat-sen, who used the pseudonym 中山樵 (Nakayama Kikori) in Japanese, the first two characters are 中山 (Zhōngshān) in Chinese. Notes
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