Beihai Introduction
Beihai, a coastal city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is located in the south of Guangxi, and the northeast of Beibu Gulf. It is one of the fourteen coastal open cities, an important marine outfall in the southwest of China and a port of departure in the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Due to its coastal location, it is abundant with marine resource, and considered as one of the four biggest fisheries in China. Still it has been included in the list of top 10 most livable cities in China since 2005, which is benefited from its beautiful scenery, weather and economy. In the ancient, it has a good reputation for its pearl, and in the modern times, it is well-known to the world for its tourism resource.
Administrative Division
Beihai covers an area of 3,337 square kilometers, and it is divided into 3 districts, 1 county, 21 towns, and 2 townships. The three districts are Haicheng district, Yinhai district and Tieshangang district. Haicheng district is the political, economical and cultural center of Beihai, and it consists of inland part and island part, and has a total area of 141.24 square kilometers. Yinhai district has four towns, and Tieshangang has district three towns. Hepu county has fifteen towns and townships.
Geography
Beihai is in the south of Guangxi, located in the longitude about 108° E, and in the latitude about 21° N. It is borders on Guangdong province in the east, Yulin in the northeast, Qinzhou in the northwest, and Beigu Gulf in the south. The northeastern and northwestern of Beihai are hills and mountains, and the south is flatland and tableland, thus its terrain tilts from the north to the south. The area of coastal flatland accounts for over 70% of the total area of Beihai, and marine shoal accounts for about 20%. Beihai has an average elevation from 10-15 meters, and the highest mountain has a height of 554 meters, and the highest place in the downtown is Guantouling with a height of 120 meters.
It has a subtropical monsoon climate, and abundant with rainfall, heat and sunshine. Due to its low latitude, it has sufficient heat, with an average sunshine duration of 2,009 hours, and it doesn't have a cold winter. It has an average annual rainfall volume of 1,670 millimeters, and the rainfall mainly happens in spring and summer, and autumn and winter has little rainfalls. In summer it may have heavy and torrential rains, and the biggest monthly rainfall volume may amount to 300 millimeters, and it is also suffered from frequency typhoons. It has a big moisture all year round, and the moisture is comparably bigger in spring and summer. It has an average annual temperature of 22.9℃, and an extreme high temperature of 37.1℃, and a lowest temperature of 2℃, and the average temperature of winter is about 15℃.
Nanliujiang is the biggest river in Beihai, and it is originated from Darong mountain in Yulin, and flows through Beihai to South China Sea. Nanliujiang makes the biggest delta in the entrance to sea. Xingdao lake is the biggest lake in Beihai, and shared with Qinzhou.
Natural Resource
Beihai has 124,758 hectares of cultivable land, and among those, the waterland is 48387 hectares, and the dryland is 75858 hectares. It has about 35 billion culic meters in total water resource, and the volume of fresh water resource is 3.2 billion cubic meters. Beibu Gulf is one of the six biggest petroliferous basins, which has a petroleum reserve proven of 22.56 million tons, and a natural gas reserve proven of 35 billion cubic meters, and it is also one of the four biggest fisheries, and has over five hundred kinds of fish and has a big output of sleeve fish and cuttlefish. It has a coastal line of five hundred kilometers and 97 thousand hectares of forest area.
Population and Ethnic Group
Beihai has a registered population of 1.74 million, a permanent resident population of 1.64 million and an urban population of 925 thousand and the urbanization rate is 56.3 % according to statistics in the end of 2016. It has 43 ethnic minorities, like the Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Dong and Mulao. The population of ethnic minorities is about 32 thousand, which accounts for 1.84% of the total population, and ethnic minorities with a population over one thousand are the Zhuang and Yao. The biggest ethnic group in Beihai is the Han, which is not a ethnic minority.
Economy
According to statistics issued in 2017 by Beihai government, Beihai has a GDP of about 122.9 billion yuan in 2017, with a yearly growth of about 10.2%. The added value of the first industry is about 19 billion yuan, which includes crop production, livestock, fishery, and forestry. The second industry is the supporting industry with an added value of about 66.9 billion yuan, and electronics manufacturing, petrochemical industry and new materials industry are the three biggest sub-industries. The added value of the third industry is about 37 billion yuan, and financial industry, real estate industry and service industry are the three advantageous sub-industries. The total export is about 23 billion yuan, and the total import is about 11 billion yuan.
City Flower and Tree
The city flower of Beihai is gougainvillea glabra/san jiao mei, and it is usually planted in the south of China. Temperature from 15-30 ℃ is suitable for its growth, and its flower period is from October to June in the south. It has a flower language of passion and persistence. The city tree is ficus microcarpa, which is widely planted in the two sides of roads and streets, and it has a symbolic meaning of long expectancy.
