China has 34 majorports and more than 2000 minor ports. The former are mostly sea ports (except for ports such asShanghai,Nanjing andJiujiang along theYangtze andGuangzhou in the Pearl River delta) opening up to theYellow Sea (Bo Hai),Taiwan Strait,Pearl River andSouth China Sea while the latter comprise ports that lie along the major and minor rivers of China.[1] Most of China's major cities are also ports or are facilitated by a port nearby.[2]
China's coastalports enable thetransportation ofcoal,containers, importediron ore, andgrain; roll-on-roll-off operations between mainland and islands; and deep-water access to the sea.
In port construction, China has especially strengthened thecontainer transport system, concentrating on the construction of a group of deep-water container wharves atDalian,Tianjin,Qingdao,Shanghai,Ningbo,Xiamen andShenzhen, and thus laying the foundations for China's container hubs. A new deep-water port has opened inYangshan southeast of Shanghai.
The coal transportation system has been further strengthened with the construction of a number of coal transportwharves. In addition, wharves handling crude oil and iron ore imports have been reconstructed or expanded.
At the end of 2004, China's coastal ports had over 2,500 berths of medium size or above, of which 650 were 10,000-ton-class berths; their handling capacity was 61.5 million standard containers for the year, ranking first in the world. Freight volumes handled by some large ports exceed 100 million tons a year; and the Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Dalian have been listed among the world's top 50 container ports..
130 of China's 2,000 ports are open to foreign ships. The major ports,[citation needed] including river ports accessible byocean-going ships, areBeihai,Dalian,Dandong,Fuzhou,Guangzhou,Haikou,Hankou,Huangpu,Jiujiang,Lianyungang,Nanjing,Nantong,Ningbo,Qingdao,Qinhuangdao,Rizhao,Sanya,Shanghai,Shantou,Shenzhen,Tianjin,Weihai,Wenzhou,Xiamen,Yangzhou,Yantai, andZhanjiang.
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