Qinhuangdao

Qinhuangdao 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.

Administrative divisions

    * Haigang District
    * Shanhaiguan District
    * Beidaihe District
    * Changli County
    * Funing County
    * Lulong County
    * Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County

Shanhaiguan, or Shanhai Pass, is a part of the city of Qinhuangdao in the Chinese province of Hebei. In 1961, Shanhaiguan became a site of China First Class National Cultural Site. Along with Jiayuguan and Juyongguan, it is one of the major passes of the Great Wall of China.

It is a popular tourist destination, featuring the eastern end of the Great Wall. The "First Pass Under Heaven" is also a noticeable tourist attraction. The place where the wall itself meets the Pacific Ocean (at the Bohai Sea) has been nicknamed the "Old Dragon's Head."

It is nearly 300 km east of Beijing and linked via the Jingshen Expressway.

Beidaihe District is a district in Qinhuangdao municipality, Hebei province, China. It has an area of 70.14 square kilometers and a population of 66,000. is also known as a birding haven. The Beidaihe Beach Resort stretches 10 km from east to west, from the Yinjiao Pavilion to the mouth of the Daihe river. The beach itself is covered with fine yellow sand stretching some 100 meters to the sea. The water is shallow and welcoming for children to play in. The environment around Beidaihe is considered beautiful by many. Mt.Lianfeng near the beach has two peaks covered by abundant green pines and cypresses. Lush vegetation, caves, decorated pavilions, secluded paths and winding bridges have made it attractive to visitors from throughout China. There are still few Western tourists, and there is little proliferation of English among the local populace.

English railway engineers were the first Europeans to discover the fishing village in the 1890s and it was not long before wealthy Chinese and foreign diplomats from Beijing and Tianjin made the village a popular destination. 

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.

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.

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.