Sunday, October 12, 2008

Shantou Special Economic Zone

Shantou Special Economic Zone , located within Shantou, Guangdong, is one of the five special economic zones in the People's Republic of China.

Its establishment was approved by the State Council in 1981, when it then covered only the Longhu District. In November 1984, the special economic zone was expanded to cover the Guang'ao District, with a total area of 52.6 square kilometres. It was subsequently expanded in November 1991, with the approval of the State Council in April 1991, to 234 square kilometres, covering the entire urban area of Shantou.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Shantou

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shantou/Swatow is a diocese located in the city of Shantou in the Ecclesiastical province of in China.

History


* April 6, 1914: Established as Apostolic Vicariate of Chaozhou 潮州 from the Apostolic Vicariate of Guangdong 廣東
* August 18, 1915: Renamed as Apostolic Vicariate of Shantou 汕頭
* April 11, 1946: Promoted as Diocese of Shantou 汕頭

Leadership


* Bishops of Shantou 汕頭
** Bishop Charles Vogel, M.E.P.
* Vicars Apostolic of Shantou 汕頭
** Bishop Charles Vogel, M.E.P.
** Bishop Adolphe Rayssac, M.E.P.

Nan'ao County

Nan'ao County is a in Shantou, Guangdong, China, near the Tropic of Cancer.

Haojiang District

Haojiang District is a in Shantou, China. It was established in March 2003, consisting the former Dahao and Hepu districts. It covers 134.88 sq.km. Dahao Island, which covers about 80aq.km, is part of Shantou special economic zone. And it is to the west of . Overlooking across the Queshi sea , there are Longhu District and Jinping District . Located by the pacific, Haojiang District has about 20 harbours. It has a population of 270 thousand.

Guiyu

Guiyu is the name of a town in southern China.

Location


Guiyu Town is located within the southwest part of the coastal Shantou prefecture-level city, in eastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. The Lianjiang river runs through the town.

Transport


Its inconvenience in transportation makes it unknown to most Shantou locals.

Industry


Guiyu is the largest electronic waste site on earth, and was first documented fully in December 2001 by the Basel Action Network in their report and documentary film entitled ''Exporting Harm''. The health and environmental issues exposed by this report and subsequent scientific studies have greatly concerned international organisations such as the Basel Action Network and later Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme and the Basel Convention.

China is believed to be the predominant recipient of the world's e-waste, with a roughly estimated one million tons of electronic waste being shipped there per year, mostly from the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. It arrives via container ships through the ports of Hong Kong or Pearl River Delta ports such as Nanhai. From there it is trucked to informal e-waste processing centers. Guiyu receives more e-waste than any other area in China.

Guiyu began receiving e-waste around 1995, slowly attracting rural peasants from the countryside to work in processing it. There are an estimated 150,000 e-waste workers in Guiyu. The average worker makes just US$1.50 a day, and the average workday is sixteen hours. This $1.50 is made by recovering the valuable metals and parts that are within the discarded electronics.

A great many of the primitive recycling operations in Guiyu are toxic and dangerous to workers' health. These include operations by the many thousands of workers who cook circuit boards to remove chips and solders, burn wires and other plastics to liberate metals such as copper, use highly corrosive and dangerous acid baths along the riverbanks to extract gold from the microchips, and sweep printer toner out of cartridges. Children are exposed to the dioxin-laden ash. The soil has been saturated with lead, chromium, tin, and other heavy metals. The water is undrinkable and must be trucked in from elsewhere. Lead levels in the river sediment are double European safety levels, according to the Basel Action Network.
 Piles of ash and plastic waste sit on the ground beside rice and dikes holding in the Lianjiang river.

In 2007, conditions in Guiyu have changed little despite the efforts of the central government to crack down and enforce the long-standing e-waste import ban. Visitors to the city still experience headaches and strange metallic tastes in the mouth. Recent studies have revealed some of the highest levels of dioxin ever recorded.

Chenghai District

Chenghai or Tenghai is a of the of Shantou, Guangdong , People's Republic of China.

It is the birthplace of Qin Mu, and Hai-Hong, the father of Taksin who was a Thai king.

It locates in the Southeast part of Guangdong province. Before 1994, Chenghai was a town belonging to Shantou city. After 1994, Chenghai was established as a town-level city and was administrated by provincial government directly. While in 2005, Chenghai was recruited as a district by Shantou city when it had already become a world-class known toy manufacturing zone. The main coperative strategies were OEM and subcontract production.

Chaoyang District, Shantou

Chaoyang District is a of the of Shantou, Guangdong , People's Republic of China.

It is the birthplace of Huang Guangyu, the richest man in mainland China.

Chaoshan

Cháoshàn is a term used to describe the linguistic and cultural region based in southeastern Guangdong province, China. This region is the origin for the Minnan variant: . The area is known as Chaozhou for most people overseas. In English it is spelled as ''Teochew'' and Shantou is spelled as ''Swatow''. You will find these words in an English dictionary. It is different from the rest of Guangdong province, which consists of and Hakka speakers.

Origin


The name "Chaoshan" is a contraction of the names of two of its administrative areas, the prefecture-level cities of Chaozhou , and Shantou .

Geography


Encompassing the cities of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang, the Chaoshan region, with a permanent population of 13,139,800 at the end of 2006, covers an area of 10,404 km? that stretches from Shanwei on the coast to the border of Fujian.

Culture and language


This is a unique area with its own culture that is quite different from its neighbours in Guangzhou and the rest of China. It does, however, share similarities to the Minnan areas just north of Chaoshan in Fujian province. One of the main reasons for its uniqueness is its language, called . It is said that this dialect of Chinese is one of the most difficult ones to master, as it has 8 tones compared to the 4 tones found in Mandarin. Music, opera, and food are further characteristics that distinguish Chaoshan people from the rest of Guangdong.

Climate


A temperate climate and fresh seafood attracts many visitors to this area. The people are more relaxed than other areas of China, smoking rate is less, and work should always take the backseat to noon naps and Kung-Fu tea. Many visitors from Hong Kong flock to the area for the great food known throughout China. The food is bland and so is able to retain its original flavor without being tampered by soy sauce, vinegar, chili, and other sauces. Other favorites are beef balls, fish balls, rice noodle, and numerous other small treats.

Economy


In recent years, due to corruption and car smuggling in the 1980s and 1990s, the central government has chosen to slow down growth of this region even though it is still designated as an SEZ . This has had a major effect on the lives of Chaoshan people. Business is not as vibrant compared to other cities in Guangdong and Shantou University is finding it hard to attract local high school graduates. Despite of that, new construction is prevalent and there appears to be hope in the horizon for this unique area on the coast of Southeast China. The other factor that benefits this area is the overwhelming Overseas Chinese from this area. The richest Chinese person in the world Li Ka Shing is from this region. He has invested greatly on the education and healthcare of this region.

Maps





Related links


*Chaozhou
*Shantou
*Teochew people

1922 Swatow Typhoon

The 1922 Swatow Typhoon was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused thousands of deaths in the Chinese city of in August 1922. These totals make it one of the deadliest known typhoons in history.

Meteorological history


A tropical depression located near the Caroline Islands was first spotted July 27. It moved slowly to the northwest, gradually intensifying. On July 31, it crossed northern Luzon, and entered the northernmost part of the South China Sea. It then intensified more and made on the Chinese coast near the city of late on August 2 or early on August 3. At one point, the winds were estimated to have a velocity of 100 mph.

Impact



Due to the typhoon passing through a lightly-inhabited part of the Philippines, no reports of significant impact were received. Swatow was an unfortunate city, as around 50,000 people perished in the storm. Several ships near the coast were totally wrecked. and may have been higher than 100,000. , and another unnamed typhoon that hit somewhere in China in 1912.