Whale's back behind ship coming from China, say (7)
I believe the answer is:
eastern
'from china say' is the definition.
(China is in the east)
'whale's back behind ship' is the wordplay.
'back' says to take the final letters (the letter at the back).
'behind ship' becomes 'astern' (I've seen this before).
The last letter of 'whale' is 'e'.
'e'+'astern'='EASTERN'
'coming' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for eastern that I've seen before include "Asian" , "from afar" , "Nearest (anag) - oriental" , "Of the direction of the rising sun" , "Maybe Chinese" .)