Dongfang () is one of the seven

county-level cities , map = , category = Third level administrative division of a unitary state , territory = People's Republic of China , upper_unit = Prefectures, Provinces , start_date = , current_number = 411 (408 controlled, 3 claimed) , number_da ...

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

province, China. Although called a "city", Dongfang refers to a large land area in Hainan - an area which was once a county. Within this area is the main city, Dongfang City. It is located on the western coast of Hainan Island facing

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

across the

Gulf of Tonkin The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin ( northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern co ...

, and in 2004 had a population of 435,000. As all county-level units, Dongfang is administratively divided into township-level units (see the

list A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...

). The main urban area of Dongfang (i.e., what used to be called "the county seat", when Dongfang was a county) is the town of Basuo. The former county of Ganen ( postal: Kumyan, Kanem or Kamyan) is now part of the city.

Geography and climate

Dongfang has a tropical wet and dry climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Aw'').

Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

al influences are strong, and the two seasons are the

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

and the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

(November to April), when very little rainfall occurs. Rainfall is heaviest and most frequent from August to October, when

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

s may strike, and averages an annual total of , far lower than much of the island. January through March features the highest

relative humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, dew, or fog t ...

levels of the year, while May through August is very sunny, consistently averaging above 60% of possible sunshine. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 50% in February to 67% in May, the city receives 2,574.3 hours of sunshine annually, a level not seen in the southern half of China outside of Tibet. The average low temperature remains above from May to August，and the region has large tracts of virgin forest, gradually transitioning from desert steppe on the western coast to tropical seasonal forest in the eastern mountains.

Administrative divisions

Dongfang administers eight

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and two townships: Towns: * Basuo () * Donghe () * Datian () * Gancheng () * Banqiao () * Sanjia () * Sigeng () * Xinlong () Townships: * Tian'an Township () * Jiangbian Township ()

References

External links

{{Metropolitan cities of the People's Republic of China Cities in Hainan County-level divisions of Hainan