Port Of Xiamen, China

The Port of Xiamen is located in southeast China’s Fujian Province on the coast of Xiamen Island on an inlet of the Taiwan Straight. The Port of Xiamen has an excellent natural harbor protected by offshore islands. Known by many as the “Garden on the Sea,” the area has a warm humid subtropical climate. Recently, the Port of Xiamen was recognized as the People’s Republic of China’s second most livable city. In 2007, the metropolitan area was home to more than 2.5 million people.

Many overseas Chinese call Xiamen their ancestral home, and the Port of Xiamen is one of the country’s first Special Economic Zones. Tourists will find many attractions in Xiamen, a city in a region of beautiful scenery and tree-lined beaches. It houses a national treasure from the Tang Dynasty, the Buddhist Nanputuo Temple. Since the 1980s, the Port of Xiamen has been open to foreign investment, which has created jobs, industries, and export opportunities for many companies. The city’s major economic activities include ship-building, tanning, textiles, chemical industries, manufacturing of machine tools, telecommunications, financial services, and fishing.

 

Europeans first entered the port in 1541. The local Hokkien Amoy dialect shaped how many Chinese was translated (kio-chap is ketchup, pe’h-ho is Pekoe, Ji’t-pun is Japan). The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing ending the First Opium War made the Port of Xiamen one of five treat ports open to British trade, bringing Protestant missions to China among other things.

 

The Port of Xiamen is one of China’s top ten ports. Its natural deep-water, ice-free harbor never silts up and is open year-round. It is located on Xiamen Island at the mouth of the Jiulong River just over 200 kilometers northwest of the island of Taiwan. The Port of Xiamen covers 64.5 kilometers of coastline with waters more than 12 meters deep.

The Port of Xiamen contains 81 berths, including 16 deep-water berths. Six of those are dedicated to containerized cargo. The Inner port can accommodate 100-thousand tone vessels, and 50-thousand ton vessels can dock there.

While the Port of Xiamen has traded with Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Singapore for many years, it has recently opened trade routes to the Americas, the Mediterranean, and Europe. In 2000, the Port of Xiamen handled over 19.6 million tons of cargo and over 108 thousand TEUs of containerized cargo. By 2010, the Port of Xiamen hopes to have capacity to handle 120 million tons of cargo and 10 million TEUs of containerized cargo.

The Port of Xiamen has abundant direct connections to inland China through rail and highway with direct connections to port facilities.


The City of Xiamen is a popular tourist destination for both its daytime beauty and its nighttime excitement. Visitors to the Port of Xiamen will not want to miss its many sights. The city contains many public parks with gardens and walkways and many night markets where small businesses offer their wares. Yuangdang Lake is home to many egrets who flock there during the day, and Bailuzhou Park is rich with music, dancing, and vendors during the night.

The Old City of Xiamen contains small winding streets with colonial houses and small shops with Mediterranean-style balconies reminiscent of Andalusia. Old City’s marketplace is a favorite attraction where visitors will find many narrow crowded alleys and a variety of foods including fruits, vegetables as well as live ducks, chickens, and turtles. Life in the Old City is busy and active, with people buying and selling, eating and drinking, and enjoying life.

Tong’an is the Port of Xiamen’s most remote area, but it’s also been the city’s most important cultural, economic, and political area for much of the last thousand years. Tong’an son Su Song created the world’s first astronomical clock there 600 years before the Europeans. His home, the ancestral hall for Fjuuian’s Su clan, was built in 994 AD. The Tong’an Museum inside the Confucian Temple contains historic relics, archives, and information about the people who are important to the area’s history.

Matang Village, about seven kilometers east of Tong’an, is home to 64 families who undertook a joint venture in 1990 that improved the village’s technology and increased their production by over a thousand percent. Today, the workers live in modern homes with beautiful gardens where they once lived in the squalor of poverty.
Tong’an’s Lotus Flower Mountain Scenic Area contains ancient trees and temples where visitors can take in over five thousand years of Chinese history. The West Mountain Peak Scenic Area is a perfect place to go on hot summer days. At the peak of the mountain is the 1100-year-old White Cloud Crag Temple and Purple Cloud Cove with Holy Wells said to always have sweet water. A Ming Dynasty cliff inscription can be found nearby.

While creating the Tingxi Reservoir in 1956, workers found an ancient kiln with bowls, plates, pots, utensils, and the foundation of kiln bricks from the Song Dynasty where porcelain was produced.

The Port of Xiamen is proud of its 31-kilometer Island Ring Road which encircles Garden Island. Beginning downtown at the harbor, the road is bordered by green belts and trails for biking and hiking. It is also lined by many lovely parks, gardens, and beaches.

The port has totally 74 productive berths and eleven of them are for vessels of over 10,000 dwt. The port has 6 port areas, i.e. Heping , the first -phase of Dongdu, Haitian, Shihushan, Gaoqi and Liuwudian in Tongan. In 1995, the cargo throughput reached 13.13 million tons and the container throughput reached 310,000 TEUs. The throughput of import and export foreign trade cargo reached 7.19 million tons in 1995. During the Eighth Five-Year Plan period, four deepwater berths for vessels of 10,000 dwt were built in the second-phase of Dongdu port area. The project includes one new container berths for vessels of 35,000 dwt, one coal berth for vessels of 25,000 dwt , 2 general cargo berths for vessels of 20,000 dwt and their supporting facilities. The designed annual throughput capacity was 3.5 million tons. The 3 berths on the south side, i.e. one container terminal and two general cargo berths, are built of gravity type concrete block structure with a total berthing length of 650m. The coal terminal located in Shihushan port area is built of the high-level beam-slab structure with the berthing length of 270m.

It encompasses 1, 565 square kilometres and has a population of 1. 3 million. As one of the earliest special economic zones in China, Xiamen is empowered with both provincial-level authority in economic administration and local legislative power. Since the special economic zone was established in Xiamen, the city's economy has experienced a sustained, rapid and coordinated growth. The city has been accredited as a National Sanitary City, National Garden City, and National Model City for Environmental Protection, and National Excellent Tourist City.
Xiamen Port is one of China's top 10 ports. It boasts 80 berths of various sizes. There are navigation routes from Xiamen to about 60 ports in more than 40 countries and regions. With 62 air routes, Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport is a main air hub in East China. A well-developed system of railway and highway transportation links the city with the rest of China. The city has established economic and trade relations with 162 countries and regions worldwide.
In the past, Xiamen boasted 24 points of interest, including the "eight big scenes," "eight small scenes" and scenes outside scenes. At present, four tourist areas, such as Gulangyu, Southern Putuo, Wanshi Hill and Jimei, and a sightseeing route on the sea have taken shape.