In mid-June, Beijing announced that the land reclamation project on some islands and reefs in the South China Sea had almost been completed and that the next step will involve construction of facilities for the public interest, such as a lighthouse, maritime rescue station, meteorological observation station, maritime research center and first aid service center.
I was on the floor of a maritime bus station.
Along one wall is a strange sight for a bus station: a maritime exhibit, featuring handwritten notes by an ocean liner historian and a black-and-white picture of the Queen Elizabeth docking in New York City in 1958.
For example, one official noted that maintaining safety "involves coast guard administration, the center for disease control, the national immigration agency, the port station, the maritime and port bureau, the Taiwan International Port Corporation etc".
But maritime experts say centralising coastguard stations risks throwing away local knowledge that cannot be replaced by technology.
Eventually the maritime nations established networks of coaling stations, which became part of the fabric of empire in the late 19th century.
It's all within an easy walk of the station, too -- including the Maritime Aquarium, the one relatively new building in the group and the one that enables grown-ups to enjoy browsing and shopping while still entertaining the children.
Additional flotillas must have been stationed at the other great maritime and commercial centres of the Empire: at Alexandria, providing the escort to the annual grain fleet to Constantinople, and at Carthage, controlling the western Mediterranean.
The provocation came from China's move to station an oil rig in a maritime boundary area 150 miles from Vietnam's shoreline.
