《走向海洋——中国海洋的历史与现状》一书由国家海洋局海洋发展战略研究所负责编写和审校。是国家出版基金资助出版项目、"十二五"国家重点图书出版规划项目"中国海洋"丛书中的一本分册。本书主要从自然地理的角度描述了中国周边的海洋，众多的海湾、海岛和海港，从历史的角度介绍中国从古至今认识、开发、利用海洋的过程，以及近代中国从海上遭受西方列强侵略，中国人民奋发抗争、维护国家主权和海洋权益的历史。（213.The Past and Present of China's Seas was compiled and revised by the Marine Development Strategy Institute of State Oceanic Administration. It is a volume in the serial China's Maritime Development which is a publishing program sponsored by the National Publishing Fund as well as the Twelfth Five-year Guideline of National Important Books. This book depicts the physical features of China's neighboring seas, sea bays, islands and seaports. It also introduces the history of China's progress in knowing, developing, and utilizing seas as well as a struggle history of Chinese people defending national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests when modern China suffered from invasion of the imperialist powers from seas）