* Scope of Application.

1) This document stipulates the shape, color, light quality, marking symbols and their setting and use requirements for floating buoys and fixed marks in water that act the same as buoys in China.

2) This document applies to the water buoys and fixed marks in the water with the same effect as the buoys set up in the Chinese sea area and its ports and the mouth of the sea estuary in the Transportation, Fishery, Scientific Research, Petroleum Exploration, Marine Development and Military Departments.

3) This document does not apply to lighthouses, fan light signs, guide buoys, light boats and large navigational aids.

* Terms and Definitions.

Conventional direction of buoyage     

When the ship sails in the waterways along the coast and estuaries, it is used to confirm the basis for the left and right of the channel, that is, the habitual direction of the buoy system. 

Its provisions are as follows:

a) Directions from the sea approaching or entering a port, estuary, bay or other waterway.

b) Waterways in the open sea, straits or between islands refer in principle to the direction in which they sail clockwise around the continent.

c) In a complex environment, the channel direction is prescribed by the navigation management authority with a "→" on the chart.

Port side of a channel, Startboard side of a channel.

When a ship sails along the channel, its port side is the left side of the channel, and the starboard side is the right side of the channel.

Offshore fixed mark

The elevation of the punctuation point is below the local average tidal high tide surface, and the foundation of the sign or part of the marker body is submerged by the average high tide high tide surface of the water standing marker, lamp pile and other navigational aids.

Buoy shape

The shape characteristics that appear when the buoy body above the waterline is viewed from any horizontal direction on the water. 

Top mark

One or two signs on top of the navigation buoys with a certain size,color and specific shape.

New danger

Newly discovered dangerous substances that have not yet been published on nautical materials, such as natural beaks such as shoals and reefs, or man-made dangerous substances such as shipwrecks and sunkens.

Real AIS AtoN

Automatic identification system device for ships set up on navigation signs.

Virtual AIS AtoN

A virtual navigation message broadcasted by the AIS base station via message 21.