Longkou (), formerly Huang County (), is a port city in northeastern

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

province, China, facing the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of a ...

to the north and the

Laizhou Bay Laizhou Bay () is a bay on the southern shore of the Bohai Sea (also known as the ''Bohai Gulf'', or just ''Bo Hai'', which is a large and relatively shallow westward extension of the northern Yellow Sea), bounded by the northwestern coastline of ...

to the west. Longkou, a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a Administrative divisions of China#County level (3rd), county-level administrative divi ...

, is administered by the

prefecture-level city A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. During the Republican era, many of China' ...

Yantai Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...

. It is located in the northwest of Jiaodong Peninsula and the south bank of Bohai Bay, adjacent to Penglai District in the east, Qixia City and Zhaoyuan City in the south, Bohai Sea in the west and north, and facing Tianjin and Dalian across the sea. With a total area of 901 square kilometers, the city has jurisdiction over 5 subdistricts, 8 towns and 1 high-tech industrial park. Longkou has been awarded many honors, such as National Civilized City, China Excellent Tourist City, National Health City, National Green Model City, National Garden City, National Sustainable Development Experimental Zone, National Ecological Protection and Construction Demonstration Zone, and provincial pilot county for transformation and upgrading of scientific development of county economy.

History

Huang County was the center of the ancient

Dongyi The Dongyi or Eastern Yi () was a collective term for ancient peoples found in Chinese records. The definition of Dongyi varied across the ages, but in most cases referred to inhabitants of eastern China, then later, the Korean peninsula, and Ja ...

state of Lai during China's

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

.. Under the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

, it was administered as part of Dengzhou (now Penglai). Huang County was renamed Longkou in 1986.

Administrative divisions

There are five

subdistricts A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, Indon ...

and eight

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

under the city's administration: Subdistricts: * Donglai Subdistrict (), Longgang Subdistrict (), Xinjia Subdistrict (), Xufu Subdistrict (), Dongjiang Subdistrict () Towns: * Huangshanguan (), Beima (), Lutou (), Xiadingjia (), Qijia (), Shiliang (), Langao (), Zhuyouguan ()

Geography

Longkou is a coastal harbour city adjacent to Penglai city and Yantai urban area to the east, linked to Qingdao to the south. Its administrative area (county-level city) covers and contains a coastline of . The city can be roughly divided into four major built-up areas: a central urban area, Longkou harbour city, Donghai and Nanshan. At the west coast of Longkou, there is one of China's largest land reclamation projects under development. It will encompass six artificial islands with an extent of approx. 10 to 10 km. Longkou is quite mountainous in the south and flat plains to the north. It has with low hills in the southeast and littoral plains in the northwest. There are mountains and rivers surrounding Longkou. The annual average temperature within the city is 11.7 °C. Although longkou has pleasant temperature in summer, it could be extremely cold during winter

Climate

Economy

Longkou is well known for its production of

cellophane noodles Cellophane noodles, or fensi (), sometimes called glass noodles, are a type of transparent noodle made from starch (such as mung bean starch, potato starch, sweet potato starch, tapioca, or canna starch) and water. A stabilizer such as chitosan ...

, it is home to the New Dragon Asia Corporation head office as well as the Nanshan Group, an industrial conglomerate. Longkou is a port city with an international deep-water cargo port. It handles over 70.000 tons annually. There is also a number of smaller industrial companies, such as Longkou Beer Equipment Co. In 2021, the regional GDP and general public budget revenue of Longkou City reached 123.66 billion yuan and 11.2 billion yuan respectively, with an annual growth rate of 6.7% and 5% respectively.

Transport

Longkou is linked to the national expressway network of China via the G18 expressway (Weifang-Yantai) and the new S19 provincial expressway Longkou-Qingdao. There will be a highspeed rail connection via Weifang, currently this is still under construction. The closest airport is Yantai airport, about one hour east of Longkou. Within the territory of the DaLailong Railway, Longyan railway and other railway trunk.

Education

Longkou is home to Yantai Nanshan University (), a private university offering bachelor's and master's degrees http://www.nanshan.edu.cn/ and to a bilingual (Chinese-English) high school.

References

External links

https://web.archive.org/web/20070820234504/https://web.archive.org/web/20180814022029/http://www.longkou.gov.cn/eng/eng.jsp (Official Government Website)
{{County-level divisions of Shandong Cities in Shandong Yantai