Qinhuangdao has a long history. The first emperor of Qin Dynasty once stationed here on his eastern inspection tour in 215 B.C, and sent Lu Sheng of Yan State to seek immortals off the sea, hence the place was named after him as Qinhuangdao (island of Emperor Qin). In May 1983, Qinhuangdao became a city under the direct jurisdiction of Hebei Province. In April 1984, it was approved by the State Council as one of the 14 coastal cities further opened to the outside world.


1. Geographical Position and Natural Conditions

Situated at the northeastern corner of Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao lies between 118º 33'and 199º 51'E, between 39º 23'and 40º 37'N, It is in proximity to the Bohai Bay on its south and leans on Mount Yanshan on the north. To its east it connects the boundary of Liaoning Province, and a short distance to Tianjin and Beijing to the west. The Great Wall stretches across all the way through the entire city. With an excellent geographical position, it is the conjunction area between North China economic zone and Northeaset China economic zone. Qinhuangdao enjoys a semi-humid continental monsoon climate. There is no bitter cold in winter and no blazing hot in summer. The four seasons are distinctive from each other. The annual average temperature is 10.1℃. The hottest weather occurs in July with the average temperature of 25℃. The coldest month is January with an average temperature of -6.5℃.


2. Administrative Division and Population

There are three districts and four counties under its jurisdiction,  namely Haigang, Beidaihe and Shanhaiguan districts; Changli, Funing, Lulong counties and  Qinglong Manchurian Autonomous County, its total area is 7812.4 square kilometers with  the total population of 2.64 million. The municipal people's government is located in Haigang District.


3. Natural Resources

Qinhuangdao, lies between the mountain and the sea, has a variety of landforms and abundant natural resources.

A)   Mineral resources
Various deposits are found available in the area such as deposit  metamorphism, internal generation, etc. Listed in the national and provincial mineral reserves are iron coal, oil shale, sulphur ore, limestone for alkali cement, silica stone and dolomite ore for glass, etc.

B) Aquatic Resources
Qinhuangdao has a 124.4 kilometers coastline endowed with various sea products such as prawn, sea cucumber, jelly fish, crab, etc. 60,000 mu of mudded beach and 200,000 mu of shallow water along the coastal area adapt to further development of aquatic products breeding.

C) Forest and Fruit Resources
There are 253,000 hectares of woodland and 80,000 hectares of orchard. The main products are apple, pear, grape, haw, peach, chestnut and walnut, etc. 350 million kg of fresh fruits are produced in a normal year.


4. Industry and Agriculture

There are 362 enterprises altogether for state-owned enterprises, large and medium-sized enterprises and non-stateowned enterprises with market income exceeding 5 million yuan. The major industrial sectors are metallurgy, building materials, textile, chemical, electronics, machinery and food manufacturing.

Qinhuangdao has gained the reputation of "a Glass City". The production ability of flat glass is 11.58 million cases. Yaohua Glass Group, which is well known in the world, has a history of nearly 70 years. the flat glass production is 1/10 of the total output in China. Its products are sold to more than 60 countries and regions.

Agriculture in Qinhuangdao spreads mainly in the four counties. The cultivated land accounts to 2.946 million mu, which produces 88.1 million tons of a year. The main crops are corn, rice, sorghum and sweet potatoes. Peanut is the main oil-bearing crop. Livestock breeding mainly are pigs, oxen, sheep, rabbits, chickens, ducks and geese. Aquatic products consist of three categories: sea fishing, seawater breeding and freshwater breeding. The village and township enterprises are under rapid development and thus has become the pillar of rural economics. In 1999 the city's over 50,000 township enterprises turned out a gross product of 20.3 billion yuan.


5. Science, Technology and Education

Scientific research: There are 8 ministerial and provincial scientific research institutions such as Glass Design and Research Institute of Building Material Bureau of China, Metallurgical Mining Design Institute as well as more than 100 municipal and local scientific and technical institutions in Qinhuangdao, the total scientific and technical personnel amounts to over 100,000. The total qualified personnel is 143695 with a density of 9.84%. The ratio between qualified people and population is 1 to 17.8.Education: There are 6 colleges and institutions located in Qinhuangdao, for instance, Yanshan University, Northeast Technology Institute Qinhuangdao Branch, Daqing Petroleum Institute Qinhuangdao Branch, China Environment Technology Normal College. There are 12 academies and schools covering such fields as coal, building materials, aquatics, finance and economy, electromechanics, etc. There are also 225 ordinary and vocational schools in the city.


6. Tourism

As one of the Class A tourist cities in China, Qinhuangdao is rich in tourist resources and has made tourism one of its pillar industries. Beidaihe, a scenic spot and summer resort, is well known all over the world. Its beautiful sceneries and pleasant climate, soft beach and flat tide, green trees and elegant surroundings, make it a first choice for travel, recreation, holiday making and international or national conferences.

The ancient town, Shanhaiguan, is a defence building group in ancient China. One of the greatest architecture on the earth - the Great Wall stretches here into the sea. Some parts of the Great Wall in this area goes up and down along the peaks of the mountains with the towers standing into the sky, just like a coiling dragon and crouching tiger guarding the pass. The scenic spots consist of mountain, sea and pass. Because of the preferential position, it shows unique combination of imagination and elegant architecture.

To promote the development of tourism, on the basis of renovation and completing the scenic spots in Beidaihe and Shanhaiguan, Golden Beach, Nandaihe, Mt. Jieshishan, Tianma lake, Mt. Beiniuding, etc. have been developed in recent years, zones covering 40 scenery spots and over 10 tourist lines. Qinhuangdao has become a tourist city for its beautiful scenery and convenient transportation. In addition, tourism service facilities have been developed and improved. There are 2,000 hotels, guesthouses and sanitariums, receiving 6 million tourists from home and abroad each year.


7. Economic and Technical Development Zones

Since the establishment of Qinhuangdao Economic and Technical Development Zone which was approved by the State Council in October 1984, several other development zones have been set up in Qinhuangdao, namely Shanhaiguan ETDZ, Beidaihe ETDZ, Nandaihe New-and Hightech industrial Zone and Nandaihe Tourist and Holiday Zone.

The infrastructure for the zones has been greatly improved, which has helped attract more and more foreign investors. The enterprises with foreign investment now in operation have been making good profits. The enterprises in the zones, whose total industrial output value takes more than 1/4 of the city's total are playing a more and more important role in the city's economic life.