Beilun District

Beilun District (simplified Chinese: 北仑区; pinyin: Běilún Qū) is an international port in Zhejiang province, China, off the easternmost edge of the southern coast of Hangzhou Bay. It primarily services the regional city of Ningbo.

Originally a small fishing town, the presence of a deep sea lane with year-round minimum depth of 17 meters stretching along the coast of Beilun motivated the Chinese Government to build one of the nation's largest deep sea port here. The port is further protected from storms by the mountainous islets of Zhoushan just off the coast of Beilun.

14.31 billion yuan has already been invested in the Beilun port. With the completion of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge in 2008, Beilun is set to receive increased volumes of international freight and be more closely tied to the metropolis of Shanghai. It has been proposed that Beilun port be managed by the Shanghai port authority. That would have been a logical move given that Shanghai's own port and water lane - a mere 11 metres deep - can only accommodate container ships and freighters of DWT|50,000|metric|first=yes or less. Swift and dangerous undersea currents in Shanghai contribute to an inefficient port that costs the city a great deal to keep open, and even then it is often only usable during high tide. Beilun is also home to a small free trade zone that has a concentration of manufacturers focused on vacuum formed packaging and an older plant that manufactured window air conditioners for Fedders.

External links

* [http://www.bl.gov.cn/en/ Windows of Beilun, government website]