Lianyungang Port ,the eastern terminal of the new Eurasian Continental bridge,is situated in the middle of China's eastern coast.The port owns a broad peaceful water area of 30 square km.The average temperatureis 14.6 degrees Celsius and the moderate weather ensures the round-year operation.The port is 107 miles south to Qingdao and 338 miles north to Shanghai,550 miles west to Japan and 322 to South Korea. The port connects the Yangtz River in domestic trade and the world in international trade.

Lianyungang port is a large enterprise running in transport business,it is one of the 10 largest ports and one of the "500 largest service enterprises" in China.It is in a scale of 15 thousand staff and 32 various types of berths among which 22 for 10-thousand-ton vessels with a designed annual throughput capacity of 25 million tons.The depth of the berths ranges from minus 9m to12m, and the depth of the 12.35-km-long out -channel is minus 9m, the width of the channel at the bottom is from 160 to 270m which is enough for a 50 -thousand-ton vessel sailing at high tide. The quarantine anchorage is large enough for 43 vessels at one time. As the eastern gate of Longhai-Lanxin new economic zone and the eastern terminal of the New Eur -Asia bridge,the Port of Lianyungang is playing a more and more important role in the international and domestic trade,it has become a comprehensive port for international trade with complete transport functions for bulk cargo, general cargo and containerized cargo

The hinterland of the port covers 11 provinces and autonomous regions as Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui, Shanxi, Sichuan, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu,Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang, the total area is 3.6 million square km accounting for one third of the country's toatl and the population is 250 million, one fifth of the country's total.The area forms a large Longhai-Lanxin new economic zone across China.

The Port of Lianyungang is the eastern end of Longhai railroad which stretches to Urumqi in the west and links with Chinese maijor railways such as Beijing-Shanghai ,Beijing -Guangzhou and Beijing-Koulong.In the port area, the tracks reach all the terminals and warehouses, the train-vessel direct loading/unloading saves the time enormously. The average turnover period of the cargo is about 6 days. There are 8 pairs of passenger trains running from opposite directions between Lianyungang and Shanghai, Nanjing, Xuzhou, Zhenzhou, Baoji,Urumqi andBeijing, the project of doubling the track from lianyungang to Lanzhou, capital of GanSu province is coming to the end.

The port also enjoys a perfect highway network, The Nanjing -Lianyungang first-class highway was put in to use in 1996 which joints the Nanjing-Shanghai expressway . The "2 Vertical and 2 Horizontal National Road Project", which is to be finished before the year 2000,will make Lianyungang as the joinning point of two of the above -mentioned four national highways.

The airport of Lianyungang is available for Beijing, Guangzhou,Shanghai, Shenyang, Chendu, Xiamen and Dalian.

The Port of Lianyungang has built up trade relations with more than 1000 ports over 150 countries and regions in the world. It has 10 liners with more than 50 voyages a month to Japan, Hongkong, Singapore,South Korea and other regions in Southeast Asia, and the cargoes can also be forwarded to America, Canada, Europe and the other places in the world by transit. The number of the liners is still increasing.

The port has 30 square km of water area and 10 million square metres of working area where all the facilities are equipped for fresh water,electricity, communication and navigation.

The main kinds of cargoes handled are:coal, steel, timber, bulk grains, fertilizer, cement, iron ore, non -metal ore, alumina , vehicles, containers and etc ,there are more than 150 kinds of 30 types of cargoes handled in the port.

The port has 737 sets handling machines and working boats, the maximum lifting capacity is 150T on land, and 200T on the water, the maximum capacity of tug boat is upto 2354 kilowatts. It has a set of bulk grain loading/unloading line of 2 million tons per year, which is the first set in China. The designed annual throughput capacity for the coal terminal is 11 million tons ,and 1 million tons for the timber terminal 1 million tons for the dangerous cargo berths. The container terminal is designed for 200 thousand TEUs a years where two 2nd-generation container vessels can be handled at one time.The designed annual throughput capacity for the general berths for ore and other general cargos is up to 3 million tons.

The port owns one million square meters of back yards capable of storing 1.5-million-ton cargos at one time with the annual turnover of more than 15 million tons

The 10900-km New Eurasia bridge starts from Lianyungang stretching across the Euro- Asia continents till to Rotterdam in Neterland, it links the Pacific and the Atlantic and radiates over 30 countries and districts.The in-China section ofthe railroad is 4131km long,five-six days of running for the container regular train. The westgoing cargo from Asian-Pacific lands at Lianyungang and moves to Abarhan Pass at the west border of China,after transhippment at Druzhba in Hazakhstan, the cargo goes westward through CIS, Poland and Germany,to other European countries. The eastgoing cargo arrives at Lianyungang and then goes to Japan, South Korea, Hongkong, Taiwan and other places by sea.

For the east-west bounding cargo, the New Eurasia bridge is 8,000 kilometres less than ocean shipping line via the Suez Canal and 11,000km less via the Panama Canal and 15 ,000km less via the Cape,both the expense and time are considerably saved.

The connecting of China Lanxing railroad and the Tsusi railroad of Kazakhstan in 1990 completes the whole line of the bridge, a freight train named "1080 Oriental"loaded with 50 containers firstly started from Lianyungang and went to Alma-Ata, Moscow, Saint Petersburg.

In 1997, Lianyungang port handled transit containers of 30,016 TEUs involving 14 countries and regions in the continental bridge transportation business as Japan ,South Korea,USA, Kazakhstan,Russia, Uzbekistan,Germany, Australia, Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan and etc. There are nearly 30 kinds of cargoes transported along the bridge such as machinery, chemicals, electrical equipment and other industrial and agricultural products .Cargo moves now in both directions instead of single westgoing, over 95% of the transit containers via China has been undertaken at Lianyungang.

A special regular train has been put into operation since April 1st 1997, starting from Lianyungang ending at Abarhan-Pass, the train is of fixed stops, fixed route, fixed number (No.8102/1), fixed time and fixed freight (it is so called 5 fixeds), it takes 5.13 days for the 4131 km China's section rather than 15 days as before. The freight is lowered and more favorable conditions are possible for big lot cargo. So safer and faster transport and quicker feedback information is ensured.

The Railroad Container Forwarding Center of Lianyungang, which was approved by the National Railway Ministry on April 4th 1998, simplifies the procedures and reduces the expenses for the intermodal transport,and provides a better service for cargo owners.

According to the blue plan, 5 port areas will be formed including Old port area, Miaoling port area, Xugou port area, North port area and Eastern port area, the quay line will be over 25 kilometres and more than 100 berths will be constructed, the annual throughput capacity will be between 60 million and 100 million tons . It is believed that,in the next century,the eastern bridgehead of the New Eurasian Continental Bridge

-- Lianyungang Port will shine as a comprehensive port for world trade at the coast of the China's Yellow Sea ,and offers high-quality services to promote the economic and trade coorperation between Asia and Europe and the economic development along the New Eurasian Continental Bridge.