Sansha, China's southernmost island city, which administers vast island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea.
The ministries of natural resources and civil affairs published on Sunday the official names of some of the islands, reefs and seafloor geographical entities in the South China Sea.
Research vessel Tan Kah Kee of Xiamen University has sailed to the South China Sea for a 35-day scientific expedition.
A Chinese spokesman on Tuesday refuted the Vietnamese claim concerning the Xisha and Nansha Islands, stressing the Xisha and Nansha Islands are Chinese territory.
When whales die and sink to the ocean floor, their carcasses — known as whale falls — provide a bounty of nutrients for other creatures of the deep.
Chinese researchers have spotted a whale fall, a rare deep-sea ecosystem, in the South China Sea during a deep-sea scientific expedition, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China on Thursday announced that several breakthroughs were made during a recent trial exploration of mining gas hydrates, known as flammable ice, in the South China Sea.