There are two first-class open ports in Rizhao---RizhaoPort and LanshanPort, totaling over 30 berths. RizhaoPort is the second largest port for coal export in China. LanshanPort is the biggest liquefied chemical harbor in northern China. With deep water and broad bay, free from silt and ice, the two ports have great potentialities for development. Over 166 berths can be built in the two ports with the annual handling capacity of over 580 million tons. The handling capacity in year of 2005 was 84.3 million tons. The increasing rate of the handling capacity ranks first among all ports in China and the increasing volume ranks first among all ports in ShandongProvince.
Rizhao has favorable location. In July 1995, Rizhao was nominated as the oriental bridgehead of the NewEurasiaContinentalBridge. Rizhao is the connecting point between the coastal axis of the major construction areas of the state and the Economic Belt of the continental Bridge along the railway of Rizhao-Xi’an, as well as the only export coast in the southwest area of Qilu and the important coast in Middle-West of China. Three railways (Heze—Rizhao, Jiaozhou—Xinyi and Pingshang—Lanshan) and two expressways (Rizhao—Dongming and Tongjiang—Sanya) within the boundary connect with national transport arteries. Yanzhou—Rizhao Railway starting from Rizhao port and LanshanPort in the east can directly reach the ports of European countries including Rotterdam Port of Netherlands and Antwerp. Rizhao’s location is important because it has two ports connecting with the world and one railway linking Asia with Europe.
At the same time, with rich natural production, Rizhao is the major producers of cereals, oils, fruits, animal products, peanuts, seafood, tobacco, silk cocoon and traditional Chinese medicine, and its output of tea is the biggest in North-China and it is one of the four biggest fishing farm in China. The water sources are abundant here. The annual average rainfall of Rizhao is 874mm and the total volume of water sources is more than 2 billion cubic meters. Rizhao has 5060 hectare coastal beaches and more than 100 different kinds of fishes. With rich forest sources, the coverage rate of forest reaches 30.8%. Bamboo of South China and larch of North China can grow well in Rizhao. Rizhao boasts great amount of nonmetal resources, such as asbestos (150,000 tons), granite (300 million tons), gneiss (550 million tons), and Potash Feldspar.
