Night flight over South China Sea...what was I looking at?

We were recently on a flight from KUL to HKG..so probably over the South China Sea. About an hour out of HKG the view below looked like we were flying over stars. It seemed to crowded to be just commercial marine traffic...my guess was a fishing fleet?..but not sure. It was one of the prettiest sights I've seen from a plane. Can anyone confirm my guess?

Look your flight up on Flightaware or Flightradar24 and you'll be able to see an exact map of your routing.

Commercial fishing seems more likely than stars if you were over water. ;)

Thanks...I'll give that a shot. I was only assuming we were over water. It was a weird blob cluster of lights, each distinct, but fewer than one would see flying over a town and much more concentrated and less organized than farm lights. After I first noticed it, it continued for a good period of time....but when we got close to HKG it was less concentrated and looked like normal marine traffic below. Also, I don't know if there was something unusual going on because of the South China Sea issues with the PRC.

I should have asked a flight attendant.

If you have ever taken a cruise in that area you would recognize the fishing fleets. Hundreds of boats, each with dozens of lights on their masts and at the end of net poles. For some reason different nationalities use different colors. It absolutely mesmerizes me every time we come across them.

If you have ever taken a cruise in that area you would recognize the fishing fleets. Hundreds of boats, each with dozens of lights on their masts and at the end of net poles. For some reason different nationalities use different colors. It absolutely mesmerizes me every time we come across them.

We were on a land/air trip. I guess, it's just as mesmerizing from the sky.:)

I checked the air route per fbgd's suggestion and then looked up marine traffic...it appears it was scads of fishing vessels. From a ship it would seem like hundreds...it has to be thousands when viewed from the air.

I think this is what you are looking at......

OK... that did not work...

Try clicking here to pull up the image.

http://www.bansaithong.com/Activitie#&gid=1&pid=1