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Water
Transport
China’s mainland coast is over
18,000 km long, and its rivers total 220,000 km in length. Such
excellent natural conditions provide convenience for developing
inland river transport and ocean shipping. The major inland navigable
rivers in China are the Yangtze, the Pearl, the Heilongjiang, the
Huaihe, the Qiantang, the Minjiang and the Huangpu, not forgetting
the Grand Canal between Beijing and Hangzhou. In 1999, navigable
inland waterways in China totaled 110,300 km, the volume of cargo
transportation was 2,126.3 billion tons/km, and the volume of passenger
transportation was 10.73 billion persons/km.
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The
largest container terminal in northern China has been built in Dalian.
These containers are being loaded to be transported to the railway
station.
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| Now there are more
than 5,000 berths at some 70 major inland river ports. The Yangtze,
the “golden waterway” of China’s inland river transport, has considerable
annual volume of both freight and passenger transport. Nanjing Harbor,
the largest river harbor in China, has an annual capacity of more
than 40 million tons. Ocean shipping in China is divided into two
major navigation zones: the northern and the southern ones. The northern
one has Shanghai and Dalian as the centers, and the southern one has
Guangzhou as the center. Harbors (including inland river ports) built
after 1978 have an annual capacity of 497.26 million tons. There are
more than 20 major coastal harbors in China, with an annual capacity
of 1.05 billion tons, and the passenger turnover of 64.01 million
Shanghai Harbor ranks among the 10 largest trade harbors in the world,
with an annual capacity of over 100 million tons. China has an ocean
fleet with a capacity of 22 million tons of goods, sailing among 1,100
harbors worldwide. |
