Sea · China, South Korea, Japan
East China Sea
The East China Sea is a wide arm of the Pacific Ocean between China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Most of it is surprisingly shallow, and the mighty Yangtze River pours its muddy water into it.
Picture credit: そらみみ (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Takeshi Kuboki (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is East China Sea?
Part of: Pacific Ocean.
Countries on its coasts: China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan.
The story behind it
If you could walk across the floor of the East China Sea, most of the trip would be easy: almost three quarters of it is less than 200 metres deep. Only near its eastern edge, in a long trench called the Okinawa Trough, does the seabed drop to about 2 700 metres. Along that edge lies the chain of the Ryukyu Islands, and some of them are volcanoes. The Yangtze, the largest river flowing into the sea, carries huge amounts of mud and sand that settle on the bottom. In some bays the tides are enormous: in Hangzhou Bay the water can rise by up to about 9 metres. Between 1849 and 1892, whaling ships came here to hunt right whales. Today fishing boats and big ships cross the sea every day. The countries on its shores do not agree on where some of the sea borders run.
Find it on the globe
East China Sea is there as a name written across its water — tap the water and its card opens. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
Questions children ask
How big is the East China Sea?
It covers about 750 000 km², more than twice the size of Germany. Some books draw its edges more widely and give up to about 1.25 million km², so the number depends on where you say the sea ends.
How deep is the East China Sea?
Almost three quarters of it is less than 200 metres deep. The deepest spot, about 2 700 metres down, lies in the Okinawa Trough near the Ryukyu Islands.
Which big river flows into the East China Sea?
The Yangtze is the largest river that flows into it. Together with other rivers it carries mud and sand that slowly build up thick layers on the seabed.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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