China has 34 major ports and more than 2000 minor ports. The former are mostly sea ports (except for ports such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Nantong along the Changjiang river and Guangzhou in the Pearl river delta) opening up to the Yellow sea (Bo Hai), Taiwan straits, Pearl river and South China Sea while the latter comprise ports that lie along the major and minor rivers of China. Most of China's major cities are also ports or are facilitated by a port nearby.
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Major ports
The major ports in China, listed North to South, consist of:
1. Dalian 2. Yingkou 3. Jinzhou 4. Qinhuangdao 5. Tianjin 6. Yantai 7. Weihai 8. Qingdao 9. Rizhao 10. Lianyungang 11. Nantong 12. Zhenjiang 13. Jiangyin 14. Nanjing 15. Shanghai 16. Ningbo 17. Zhoushan 18. Taizhou (North of Wenzhou) 19. Wenzhou 20. Taizhou (South of Wenzhou) 21. Changle 22. Quanzhou 23. Xiamen 24. Shantou 25. Jieyang 26. Guangzhou 27. Zhuhai 28. Shenzhen 29. Zhanjiang 30. Beihai 31. Fangchenggang 32. Haikou 33. Basuo 34. Sanya
Port construction and cargoes
China's coastal ports enable the transportation of coal, containers, imported iron ore, and grain; roll-on-roll-off operations between mainland and islands; and deep-water access to the sea.
In port construction, China has especially strengthened the container transport system, concentrating on the construction of a group of deep-water container wharves at Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen, and thus laying the foundations for China's container hubs. A new deep-water port has opened in Yangshan southeast of Shanghai.
The coal transportation system has been further strengthened with the construction of a number of coal transport wharves. 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, including river ports accessible by ocean-going ships, are Beihai, 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, and Zhanjiang.