In October 1997, Beihai and Gold Coast entered agreement to establish sister city relations.
A Brief Introduction of Beihai City
Go south, and you will reach Beihai. Located in Beibu Gulf, the sole sea in west China, Beihai just looks across the water to Vietnam and Hainan province, China. It is also a famous coastal tourist city and National Historic and Cultural City as well. As a peninsula city, Beihai is embraced by the sea in three directions, with every road leading to the sea. The total land area of Beihai adds up to 3,337 km², and the length of its coastline is 669 km. It has a population of 1.74 million, with Haicheng District, Yinhai District, Tieshan'gang District and Hepu County under jurisdiction.
Source: Information Office of Beihai Municipal Government
In ancient times, Beihai was once part of Baiyue and Yangyue respectively. People lived in this place over 7,000 years ago in Neolithic Age. There are two stories about the source of the city name. Firstly, in Kangxi Period of Qing dynasty, an army officer was dispatched to station here and set up a landmark named Beihai. Secondly, the city faces the gulf in the north, and Bei means North and Hai means sea in Chinese, hence the name of Beihai.
According to Book of Han, Beihai was a departure port of China's ancient Maritime Silk Road over 2,000 years ago. The official fleet started off from Hepu port to coastal countries and cities of Southeast Asia, and far to western Asian area. In 1876, together with Wenzhou, Wuhu, and Yichang, Beihai was listed as an open trade port by Sino-British Yantai Treaty. Consequently, eight countries like Britain, France, German and Italy, etc. established consulates or offices here, and western medicine, electric lamp, telephone, silent film, and motor machine appeared in Beihai at an early stage, making Beihai an important window for western culture's influence on east. So far Beihai still preserves 18 western style buildings like consulates, foreign firm, post office, church, and hospital,etc. The Beihai Old Street, founded in the second half of the nineteenth century, is an important historical and cultural spot, reflecting the prosperity of Beihai in the past.
Impression of Beihai Old Street (by Ju Yunhua)
As a famous subtropical coastal tourist city, Beihai owns domestic first-class coastal tourist resources, including Silver Beach, known as the Best Beach in China, and Weizhou Island, one of China's 10 most beautiful sea islands, which is a natural geological museum, as well as mangrove, the forest on the sea, and coral reef, the seabed rainforest, etc. The annual average temperature is about 22℃, and the pleasant climate endows the city rich tropical fruits like lichee, longan, banana, and pineapple. Su Dongpo, a famous Chinese poet in Song Dynasty, once praised longan of Lianzhou (a town of Beihai) that the taste is wonderful enough as Lichee. With the negative oxygen ion concentration exceeding inland city for over 10 times, Beihai is regarded as the biggest Oxygen Bar City . It is also such a famous migrant city in China that many elders choose to live here from October 1stto May 1st of the next year. Just as the saying goes, the place that my heart lives in is hometown.
Source: Information Office of Beihai Municipal Government
Beihai has abundant natural resources. With a history of over 3,000 years for pearl catching and paying tribute, Beihai has the legend of "Pearls Returned to Hepu"and preserves the site of Bailong Ancient Town. The South Pearl produced by Beihai can rival the seawater pearl in Japan and Italy. A famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, Qu Dajun said in New Discourse of Guangdong,"The East Pearl is inferior to West Pearl while the West Pearl is inferior to South Pearl." Due to its unique pearl culture, Beihai is called City of Pearl.
A Bird's-Eye View of Beihai Beach (by Jiang Lihong)
Being one of the four major fisheries in China, Beibu Gulf teems with more than 500 types of fishes, and kinds of shrimps, crabs, shells. The delicious seafood is a visiting card for Beihai to attract guests at home and abroad. Since advertised by A Bite of China produced by CCTV, the delicacy like sandworm and ghost crab juice has been famous around China.
In 1984, the city was listed among the first batch of open coastal cities by the Chinese central government, entering opening stage for the third time. Since the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone Development Plan was approved in 2008 by the Chinese central government, Beihai has become one of the fastest growing coastal cities in China. During the 12th Five-Year Plan, the GDP growth rate of Beihai had ranked the first in Guangxi in successive 4 years since 2012.
Source: Information Office of Beihai Municipal Government
In April 2017, President Xi Jinping inspected Beihai where he praised Beihai's fine environment and rich cultural deposits of the ancient Maritime Silk Road, and he also told us to build well the Beibu Gulf port to develop Marine Economy, so as to write well the new chapter of Maritime Silk Road. With the three-dimensional traffic network including deep-water seaport, all-weather airport, high-speed railway and expressway here, and with Marine Economy as the leading industry, Beihai will build itself into an vibrant and innovative city opening to the outside world in the next five years. Every road in Beihai leads to not only the sea, but also a brighter future.