NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

1. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
Shantou, geographical coordinate 116o 46′E and 23o21′N, is located in the east of Guangdong Province, China and is the crossing of the Tropic of Cancer and coastline of China. It has been regarded as the hub of communications, an imp\exp port and the distributing center of east Guangdong, south Jiangxi and southeast Fujian.
Shantou, close to the Taiwan Strait in South China Sea and near the important international seaway in west Pacific Ocean, is 195 sea miles away from Hong Kong.

2. TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
Shantou, situated on the Chao-Shan Plain and with its terrain downward from northwest to southeast, is the outlet of Hanjiang River, which is the second longest river in Guangdong Province. Shantou has a semitropical maritime climate, with annual average temperature of 21o C to 22o C, average sunshine time of over 2,000 hours and the annual precipitation of 1,300-1,800 mm. The typhoon seasons fall in July to September every year.

3. AREA AND POPULATION
The overall area of Shantou is 2,064 sq/km and the urban area is 310 sq/km. Up to the end of 1999, the population of the whole city is 4.489 million and its urban residents are 1.167 million. The population density is 2,180 persons per sq/km. The personal average agrarian area is 0.16 Chinese mu. Shantou is one of the regions with highest population density and lowest average agrarian area in China.

4. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS
Shantou was founded in 1861 and Shantou City was established in 1921. Shantou Special Economic Zone was set up in1981. Shantou is a prefectural city administrating five county-level districts of Longhu, Jinyuan, Shenping, Dahao and Hepu District and Nan’ao County. It also governs two county-level cities of Chaoyang and Chenghai for Guangdong Municipal Government.