Yingkou

Name

Yingkou was historically known as Newchwang (Chinese: 牛庄; pinyin: Niuzhuang; Manchu: Ishangga gašan hoton) in postal romanization; it was one of the Treaty Ports opened under the Treaties of Tianjin of 1858. In fact, the actual town of Newchwang was about thirty miles upstream of Liao He, within today's county-level city of Haicheng. After the treaty had been signed, the British found that the river near Newchwang was too shallow for their ships. Instead, the treaty port was moved to the area nearer to the river mouth where today's Yingkou is located.

To avoid confusion between the two locations, careful English writers of the early 20th century would sometimes use Newchwang for Yingkou (explaining that "Ying-kow, ... outside Manchuria, ... is known only as Newchwang") and Niu-chuang (the proper Wade–Giles transcription of '牛庄') for the actual inland Niuzhuang Town. Meanwhile, Newchwangcheng (牛庄城; postal:Newchwang Town) was adopted by the government as the inland town's name to distinguish it from the coastal city.

Administrative divisions

Yingkou prefecture is subdivided into 4 districts and 2 cities:

Geography

Yingkou is located in the northwestern part of the Liaodong Peninsula, and on the left bank of the Liaohe River, which enters the sea in the city. To the west is the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Gulf, and the city thus looks across to Jinzhou and Huludao. Bordering prefecture cities are: Anshan (N and NE), Dalian (S), and Panjin (NW).

The city's metro area is located 166 km (103 mi) from the provincial capital of Shenyang, 204 km (127 mi) from Dalian, 84 kilometres (52 mi) from Anshan, and 70 km (43 mi) from Panjin. The city is located at latitude 39° 55'−40° 56' N and longitude 121° 56'−123° 02' E. At its greatest width, the city spans 111.8 km (69.5 mi) from north to south and 50.7 km (31.5 mi) from east to west. The total area of the city is 5,365 km² (2,071 sq mi), occupying a mere 4.9% of the provincial area. The city has a total coastline of 96 km (60 mi).

Climate

Yingkou has a four-season humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa) with strong monsoonal influences. Though the climate is somewhat tempered by the city's location on the Bohai Gulf, winters are long, windy, cold but dry, and summers are hot and humid. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −8.5 °C (16.7 °F) in January to 25.0 °C (77.0 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 9.48 °C (49.1 °F). Precipitation is somewhat enhanced by the coastal location, with a majority of the annual rainfall occurring in July and August alone. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 51% in July to 68% in three months, the city receives 2,774 hours of bright sunshine annually.

Industrial zones

Sport

The city is home to the basketball club Liaoning Flying Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association. The club brought forth several players of China's national basketball team. It plays its home games at the Benxi Gymnasium.

Coastal Base Project

In late 2005, the Party Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Li Keqiang, initiated the "Five Points, One Line" strategy to develop the entire Liaoning coastline area, and in particular focusing on the "five points" of the Changxing Island Harbor Industrial Zone in Dalian; Yingkou Coastal Industrial Base; Liaoxi Jinzhou Bay Coastal Economic Zone; Dandong, and the Zhuanghe Huayuankou Industrial Zone.

As a result, Yingkou city is currently undergoing substantial expansion. From its current urban area of 54 km² (21 sq mi), Phase One of the Coastal Base project is under way and is adding a further 44 km² (17 sq mi) of industrial and urban areas to Yingkou. Phase Two (planned to start in 2010) will add a further massive 157 km² (61 sq mi).

The land being used is largely marshland and reclaimed from the sea: in particular, it is largely unoccupied. As a result, the social and fiscal costs of development are less than are usual for Chinese urban and industrial development.

The Yingkou port area is also being very substantially increased in size, in the Bayuquan and Xianren harbours.

Partnership town and ports