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Increased Awareness of Coastal Territories in China
China's Central Television is currently showing a 40 episode documentary called "Walk Towards The Sea," an effort to raise the people's awareness about China's oceanic territories.
A recent survey by Qingdao University in the coastal city of east China's Shandong Province shows that as many as 90 percent of respondents only regard the 9.65 million sq km of land areas as belonging to China, ignoring nearly three million sq km of sea.
There are still little available in primary and middle school books that allows students to learn about the vast oceans that surround China.
Some schools in China have been offering courses on oceanic territories, according to maritime experts, who attended a two-day international forum on oceanic science-technology and economic development which ended Monday.
Gai Guangsheng, president of the Beijing-based "China Ocean News," says that the international forum in Qingdao is important in increasing the Chinese people's consciousness of the oceanic territories in China.
Several reasons underlies the lack of awareness among the general public concerning China's oceanic territories. China also has an outdated maritime law system.
In the past two decades, China's coastal economy grew by more than 20 percent annually.
It is also estimated that output value of coastal economies in China is expected to top 500 billion yuan this year, accounting for five percent of the country's GDP.
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