The Mainland reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Mainland

Mainland is usually the continental part of a region, as opposed to the islands nearby. Sometimes the residents are called "the Mainlanders". As a result of the usually larger area of mainland, there are significantly more mainlanders than islanders, and mainlander culture and politics sometimes threaten to dominate those of the islands.

Prominent Mainlands include:

• Mainland China, as opposed to the areas of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau (but including the island of Hainan)
• Mainland Canada, as opposed to Newfoundland
• Continental United States ("The Mainland"), as opposed to Hawaii and Alaska
• Mainland Japan and Honshu, as opposed to the rest of the Japanese islands.
• the Nova Scotian mainland, as opposed to Cape Breton Island
• South Island of New Zealand as opposed to what ever that island north of it is.

The term can also be used on multiple levels; for example to someone in Tasmania, continental Australia is the Mainland; but to residents of King Island, Flinders Island, and the other surrounding islands, Tasmania itself is the Mainland.

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