China has 34 major ports and more than 2000 minor ports. The former are mostly sea ports (except for ports such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Jiujiang along the Yangtze and Guangzhou in the Pearl River delta) opening up to the Yellow Sea (Bo Hai), Taiwan Strait, Pearl River and South China Sea while the latter comprise ports that lie along the major and minor rivers of China. Most of China's major cities are also ports or are facilitated by a port nearby.

Major ports

The major ports in China, listed North to South, consist of:

1. Dalian
2. Yingkou
3. Jinzhou
4. Qinhuangdao
5. Tianjin
6. Yantai
7. Weihai
8. Qingdao
9. Rizhao
10. Lianyungang
11. Nantong
12. Zhenjiang
13. Jiangyin
14. Nanjing
15. Shanghai
16. Ningbo
17. Zhoushan
18. Jiujiang
19. Taizhou (North of Wenzhou)
20. Wenzhou
21. Taizhou (South of Wenzhou)
22. Changle
23. Quanzhou
24. Xiamen
25. Shantou
26. Jieyang
27. Guangzhou
28. Zhuhai
29. Shenzhen
30. Zhanjiang
31. Beihai
32. Fangchenggang
33. Haikou
34. Basuo

Port construction and cargoes

China's coastal ports enable the transportation of coal, containers, imported iron ore, and grain; roll-on-roll-off operations between mainland and islands; and deep-water access to the sea. In port construction, China has especially strengthened the container transport system, concentrating on the construction of a group of deep-water container wharves at Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shenzhen, and thus laying the foundations for China's container hubs. A new deep-water port has opened in Yangshan southeast of Shanghai. The coal transportation system has been further strengthened with the construction of a number of coal transport wharves. In addition, wharves handling crude oil and iron ore imports have been reconstructed or expanded. At the end of 2004, China's coastal ports had over 2,500 berths of medium size or above, of which 650 were 10,000-ton-class berths; their handling capacity was 61.5 million standard containers for the year, ranking first in the world. Freight volumes handled by some large ports exceed 100 million tons a year; and the Shanghai, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Dalian have been listed among the world's top 50 container ports.. 130 of China's 2,000 ports are open to foreign ships. The major ports, including river ports accessible by ocean-going ships, are Beihai, Dalian, Dandong, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Haikou, Hankou, Huangpu, Jiujiang, Lianyungang, Nanjing, Nantong, Ningbo, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Rizhao, Sanya, Shanghai, Shantou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Weihai, Wenzhou, Xiamen, Yangzhou, Yantai, and Zhanjiang.

By province

Jiangxi

Fujian

Guangdong

Hainan

Hebei

Hong Kong

Jiangsu

Liaoning

Macau

Shandong

Shanghai

Tianjin

Zhejiang