Hao (French Polynesia)
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- This article is about Hao, in French Polynesia. "Hao" is also the word for a Chinese style name.
Hao is a large coral atoll in the central part of the Tuamotu Archipelago. Because of its shape, French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville named it Harp Island.
Hao is located 920 km (575 mi.) to the east of Tahiti and is 55 km (34.5 mi) in length. The lagoon is one of the longest in French Polynesia and has only one navigable passage, at Kaki, on the north end of the atoll.
The chief town is the village of Otepa, where the chief economic activity is the cultivation of pearls.
Hao's airfield serves many of the smaller eastern Tuamotus, whose landing strips are too short to land jets large enough to make the flight to Tahiti.
As of the 2002 census, the atoll's total population was 1,613.
The economic future of the atoll remains in question: the military base which was the support base for the nuclear testing on nearby Mururoa atoll, was permanently shut down in 2002, along with its many support facilities, including the electrical and desalinization plants and the hospital. The livelihood of many of the atoll's inhabitants was directly tied to the military base activity.
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