China is expected to unveil two more lighthouses on Nansha Islands in the South China Sea by the end of the year and a hospital on one of its reefs will be put into operation by June.

Lighthouse construction on the Meiji and Yongshu reefs of the Nansha Islands is underway and the new lighthouses will operate by year end, following the three lighthouses now found on Huayang, Chigua and Zhubi reefs on the Nansha Islands, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

The lighthouse located in the eastern part of the Meiji Reef is over 60 meters high and is the highest piece of architecture found in the Nansha Islands. According to Xue Anqing, a deputy head of the Second Harbor Engineering Company, the lighthouse on the Meiji Reef will be equipped with a Beidou navigation system and a system to automatically identify vessels. The lighthouse will emit white light at night with a range of over 20 nautical miles, Xinhua reported.

“The increasing presence of China’s lighthouses and rescue facilities will provide better conditions for China to shoulder its international responsibilities and obligations to conduct maritime search and rescue, disaster relief and ocean ecology protection,” Zhang Jie, deputy director of the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

“The South China Sea is a crucial sea passage linking China and the world… For a long time, the limited safety protection measures for vessels and inadequate emergency response forces has restrained the economic and social development as well as navigation safety in the South China Sea,” Zhang said, noting that the lack of navigation facilities has often led to vessels getting stranded after hitting reefs.

Meanwhile, a hospital on Yongshu Reef will be put into use by the end of June after the project construction started last November. The hospital will be equipped with advanced medical facilities and it also has a 4,000-square-meter-size garden, Xinhua reported.

On Zhubi Reef, a plantation garden covering 4,000 square meters has been offering more than 30 kinds of vegetables for the reef residents. A local farm also raises over 500 chickens, ducks and geese and 68 pigs, according to Xinhua.