Bocca Tigris
| Humen | |||||||||||||
View of the Humen Bridge over the strait
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| Traditional Chinese | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | |||||||||||||
| Postal | Hu-mun | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Tiger Gate | ||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Hǔmén |
| Wade–Giles | Hu-men |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Fu2 mun4 |
The Humen, known historically by Europeans as the Bocca Tigris or Bogue, is a narrow strait in the Pearl River Delta that separates Shiziyang in the north and Lingdingyang in the south near Humen Town in China's Guangdong Province. It is the site of the Pearl River's discharge into the South China Sea. It contains the Port of Humen at Humen Town. The strait is formed by the islands of Chuenpi (穿鼻, p Chuanbi) and Anunghoy (阿娘鞋, p Aniangxie; also called 威远, p Weiyuan) on the eastern side, and Taikoktow (大角头, p Dajiaotou) on the western side. Since 1997, the strait has been traversed by the Humen Pearl River Bridge.
The Latinate Bocca Tigris is derived from the Portuguese Boca do Tigre, which is a calque of the Chinese and Cantonese name , literally meaning "The Tiger Gate". The name Bogue is also a corruption of the Portuguese Boca. The name comes from the hill-tops or a rock said to resemble a tiger's head on the eastern side of Tiger Island, about 3.2 km (2.0 mi) above the Hengdang Islands in the middle of the strait. American Commodore Matthew Perry, who later played a leading role in the opening of Japan to the West, noted that: "Although the resemblance is not at first very striking, it becomes quite obvious after examination".
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