Haigang District 海港区

Setting and landscape

Haigang takes up the eastern part of the city and covers 701 square kilometres, with 39.16 kilometres of soft-sand coast. The climate is temperate, semi-humid and monsoonal, with four clear seasons; the district government gives an annual mean of 11°C and a maximum temperature of 32°C. The towns of Shimenzhai (石门寨), Zhucaoying (驻操营) and Duzhuang (杜庄) joined the district from Funing (抚宁) in July 2015.

History

The district government traces the city's story to 215 BC, when the First Emperor of Qin (秦始皇) toured Jieshi (碣石), had the "Jieshi Gate Inscription" (碣石门辞) carved and stopped here. In 1477, under the Ming, a stone tablet commemorating the emperor's voyage out to sea in search of immortals was raised on East Hill (东山), where the district began. In 1898 the Qing government opened a port here, one of the earliest trading ports in China.

What to see

Qinhuangdao Museum (秦皇岛博物馆), a general museum on the western section of Hebei Street (河北大街), opened for trial operation in October 2023. Its second floor holds two modern-history galleries and its third floor four ancient-history galleries; the collection includes a Shang bronze gui (簋) with nipple bosses and a ding (鼎) with taotie masks.

The Liujiang Basin Geological Relics National Nature Reserve (柳江盆地地质遗迹国家级自然保护区) spans Shimenzhai and Zhucaoying towns and forms the core of the Qinhuangdao Liujiang National Geopark, approved in 2002. Its strata record some 2.5 billion years of change in environment, crust and life, and Peking University geology students came here for field training as early as 1923.

Near Banchangyu village (板厂峪村) in Zhucaoying, the Banchangyu kiln sites (板厂峪窑址群遗址), also known as the Great Wall brick kilns, were placed on the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 2013; surveys that year identified 136 Ming kiln remains. The district government also counts more than 110 kilometres of Ming Great Wall within its borders.

Food and local products

Seafood is the local speciality. The district government lists more than 90 kinds of sea fish, led by Spanish mackerel (鲅鱼) and so-iuy mullet (梭鱼), and names Chinese white shrimp (中国对虾), tiny mao shrimp (毛虾) and swimming crab (梭子蟹) as the best-known catches.

Highlights

• Qinhuangdao Museum 秦皇岛博物馆: General museum on Hebei Street, opened in October 2023, with modern and ancient history galleries.
• Liujiang Basin Geological Relics National Nature Reserve 柳江盆地地质遗迹国家级自然保护区: Core of the Liujiang National Geopark, with strata spanning some 2.5 billion years.
• Banchangyu kiln sites 板厂峪窑址群遗址: Ming brick kilns for the Great Wall, a national key cultural relics protection unit since 2013.
• Spanish mackerel 鲅鱼: Leading sea fish among the more than 90 kinds listed by the district government.