Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao
—  Prefecture-level city  —
Chinese transcription(s)
- Chinese	秦皇岛
- Pinyin	Qínhuángdǎo
Qinhuangdao in Hebei
Qinhuangdao Location in China
Coordinates: 39°56′N 119°36′E / 39.933°N 119.6°E / 39.933; 119.6
Country	China
Province	Hebei
Government
- Mayor	Zhu Haowen (朱浩文)
Area
- Prefecture-level city	7,812.4 km2 (3,016.4 sq mi)
Population (2006)
- Prefecture-level city	2,805,400
- Density	359.1/km2 (930.1/sq mi)
- Urban	1,177,300
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	066000
Area code(s)	335
License Plate Prefix	冀C
Website	http://www.qhd.gov.cn/

Qinhuangdao (simplified Chinese: 秦皇岛; traditional Chinese: 秦皇島; pinyin: Qínhuángdǎo; Wade-Giles: Ch'in Huang Tao; Postal map spelling: Chinwangtao) is a city in Hebei province, China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea.

Geography

Since the elevation of Tianjin to a provincial-level municipality, Qinhuangdao is the chief port of Hebei province. The Qin emperor Qin Shi Huang is said to have sought immortality on an island in the Haigang district, but did not find it.

Qinhuangdao has three main developed areas:

• Beidaihe: A summer seaside resort for senior government officials. Many political decisions affecting China are made here, making it the equivalent to resorts in Maine or Camp David in Maryland in the United States.^[1]
• Haigang District: the harbor city. Qinhuangdao proper. Home of Yan Shan University, the leading university in NE Hebei province.
• Shanhaiguan: a popular tourist destination, featuring the eastern end of the Great Wall.

Qinhuangdao's Olympic Sports Centre Stadium was used as an Olympic Competition Venue (Football Preliminary) during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Administrative divisions

• Haigang District (海港区)
• Shanhaiguan District (山海关区)
• Beidaihe District (北戴河区)
• Changli County (昌黎县)
• Funing County (抚宁县)
• Lulong County (卢龙县)
• Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County (青龙满族自治县)

Development Zone

The Qinhuangdao Economic Technological and Development Zone covers a sea area of 23.81 square kilometers and has a coastline of six kilometers. The planned and controlled area of the development zone has reached 56.72 square kilometers. By the end of 2006, the number of approved projects reached 4,546, in which 647 projects were foreign-invested, with a total investment of US$4.73 billion.

Economy

Qinhuangdao Port is a strategically important port on China and is the largest coal shipping port in the country, much of which is shipped to power plants elsewhere in China. With recent expansion, its capacity has reached 209 million metric tons. The harbor is also adding a further six berths to add further capacity and is increasingly being invested in by other port operators, such as South Africa's Richards Bay Coal Terminal, who have announced plans to invest US$150 million to increase capacity by at least 28 percent.^[2]

China is also the worlds third largest coal exporter, and Qinhuangdao is expected to handle much of the nations coal exports. Rail links from Shanxi province (China’s largest coal producer) to Qinhuangdao Port are in the process of being upgraded, which should allow for Qinhuangdao to ultimately increase its throughput to 400 million tones of coal per annum from it’s current level of about 250 million tons by 2015.^[2]

Other Chinese and foreign service suppliers are also moving to Qinhuangdao to support this. China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co, China's biggest shipping company, expects US$49 billion of spending on ports over the next five years as the industry tackles bottlenecks created by the nation's unprecedented economic boom.^[3]

Red Ribbon

Qinhuangdao is home to the Tanghe River Park, which features the Red Ribbon, a knee-high steel sculpture that runs through the length of the park, providing seating, environmental interpretation, lighting, and the display of native plants. The project has won an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects and was selected by readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine as one of the seven new wonders of the architecture world.^[4]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Qinhuangdao

• Qinhuangdao Government Online

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