Past sea surface temperatures (SST) in the northern and southern areas of the South China Sea have been reconstructed for the past 220 kyr using the UK37 alkenone index. The SST profiles follow the glacial/interglacial pattern exhibiting differences between Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene that are 1¿--3 ¿C larger than those observed at the same latitudes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In Termination I both planktonic foraminiferal Δ 18O and SST exhibit well-defined B¿lling-Aller¿d and Younger Dryas events with temperature differences between both periods of 0.8¿ and 0.4 ¿C in north and south, respectively. SSTs record a constant north-south difference of 1 ¿C in the interglacials and nearly 2.5 ¿C in the glacial stages. These differences define two distinct climatic and water circulation patterns that correspond with glacial/interglacial sea level oscillations which opened and closed water exchange with the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean through the present Sunda Shelf. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union