Beilun is an international port in Zhejiang province, China, off the easternmost edge of the southern coast of Hangzhou Bay . It primarily services the regional city of Ningbo.
Originally a small fishing town, the presence of a deep sea lane with year-round minimum depth of 17 meters stretching along the coast of Beilun motivated the Chinese Government to build one of the nation's largest deep sea port here. The port is further protected from storms by the mountainous islets of Zhoushan just off the coast of Beilun.
14.31 billion yuan has already been invested in the Beilun port. With the completion of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge in 2008, Beilun is set to receive increased volumes of international freight and be more closely tied to the metropolis of Shanghai. It has been proposed that Beilun port be managed by the Shanghai port authority. That would have been a logical move given that Shanghai's own port and water lane - a mere 11 metres deep - can only accommodate container ships and freighters of 50,000 DWT or less. Swift and dangerous undersea currents also contribute to an inefficient port that costs the city a great deal to keep open, and even then it is often only usable during high tide.
