A stunning view of one of the Shengsi bays in Zhoushan. [Photo/IC]

The stunning bays of the Shengsi Islands in Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province were recently listed in the third batch of national-level beautiful bays, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The Shengsi Islands, known as the "fairy mountains on the sea" in China, consist of more than 400 islands and the bays there always delight visitors.

Located east of Hangzhou Bay and southeast of the Yangtze River estuary, near the East China Sea fishing grounds, the Shengsi bays are renowned for boasting the largest mussel farming base in the country. Indeed, the place is known as the "hometown of mussels".

Things have been busy since a slew of measures were implemented – such as the regulation of aquaculture buoys, the separation of the ownership, use rights and management rights for aquaculture sea areas and the restoration of marine areas by reducing aquaculture. In the Shengsi bays, they've replaced a total of 2.50 million foam buoys and reduced about 17,000 cubic meters of white foam waste annually.

In recent years, Shengsi county in Zhoushan has focused on marine environmental pollution control and the sustainable development of marine aquaculture.

Since 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has been promoting the construction of beautiful bays nationwide, providing the public with beautiful marine environments and high-quality ecological products. From 2022 to the present, three rounds of national-level beautiful bay selections have been conducted.

Most notably, Zhejiang now boasts a total of five national-level beautiful bays, ranking it third in the country.