Since then, the 31st MEU-SOC has visited China once more on November 22, 2006 during a port visit to Zhanjiang.
At the end of the war, the region returned briefly under French rule before being formally returned to China in 1946 by general Charles de Gaulle, then French head of state.
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The port of Zhanjiang, built in 1956, was the first modern port designed and developed after the founding of the People's Republic of China and serves as the headquarters for the People's Liberation Army Navy's South Sea Fleet.
The city is bordered on the east by Maoming Municipality (茂名市); on the south by Wuchuan City (吴川市), Potou District (坡头区) and Suixi County (遂溪县), all in Zhanjiang; on the west by Anpugang Harbour (安铺港, part of the Gulf of Tonkin) and Beihai, in Guangxi Province; and on the north by Yulin.