Chongming Island

Chongming lies in the Yangtze estuary north of the city, an island built entirely of river silt over more than a thousand years and still growing, the largest alluvial island in the world at over a thousand square kilometres, and administratively part of Shanghai despite feeling nothing like it. Farmland, canals and small towns cover most of it. The Dongtan wetland at its eastern tip is a Ramsar site on the East Asian-Australasian flyway, where hundreds of thousands of migratory birds stop each year, including large numbers of shorebirds and wintering geese and swans. Shanghai has designated the island an ecological development zone, limiting industry.

What you actually see

• The Dongtan wetlands - Ramsar-listed mudflats on the migratory flyway.
• The farm landscape - canals, fields and villages unlike anywhere else in Shanghai.
• The Dongping forest park - planted woodland in the island's centre.
• The estuary - the Yangtze mouth and the silt that built the island.

When to go

October to April for the birds, with autumn and spring passage strongest and winter holding geese and swans; summer is hot, humid and mosquito-heavy. Weekends bring Shanghai day trippers to the parks.

Honest expectations

The island is large and flat, and public transport across it is slow; a car or bicycle helps considerably. Wetland access is restricted in the core reserve, with viewing from designated areas. Little English interpretation.

Nearby

Shanghai lies south across the tunnel; Jiangsu is north across the estuary.