Shantou City is situated in the Hanjiang Delta in the east of Guangdong, bordering on Chaozhou to the north, on South China Sea to the southeast, and Jieyang to the west, so it is called "Vital Hub of South China, Gate of the East of the Ridge", and is a beautiful port city in the south of China, one of the five special economic zones. It exercises jurisdiction over Longhu, Jinyuan, Shengping, Dahao, Hepu Districts at county level, and Nan Ao County, with mandate of Chaoyang and Chenghai Cities at county level. The total area of the City is 2,064 square km with 40 coastal isles, and a coastal line of 289 km. In the end of 2001, the population of the City is 4.68 million, of which 1.20 million are in the urban districts. It has a population of overseas Chinese and compatriots of 3.35 million, spread about over 40 countries and areas, of which 80% live in Southeast Asia; thus it is a well-known homeland of overseas Chinese.

Shantou verges on the international golden waterway in West Pacific. Nan Ao is just 7 nautical miles from the Pacific international main channel, an important port of import and export, a distribution center of goods and of finance, trade, information, communications and transport of East Guangdong, Southwest Fujian, and Southeast Jiangxi. The urban district is 187 nautical miles from Hong Kong, 180 miles from Kaohsiong of Taiwan, a city that is the nearest from Taiwan. The City is furnished with 3 State Class I ports-Shantou, Chaoyang, and Nan Ao, with 13 berths of ten-thousand-ton class, a handling capacity of 24.70 million tons annually. Shantou Port is one of the twenty major pivot ports in the country, doing business with 210 ports of 47 countries(areas). Haiwan Bridge and Queshi Bridge cross the north and south banks of the urban district, and formed the "Golden Corridor" with Shenzhen-Shantou Expressway, State Highway 324,and Shan-Fen Expressway joining the Special Economic Zones of Shantou, Shenzhen and Xiamen. Guangzhou-Meizhou-Shantou Railway linked to Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and Beijing-Kowloon Railway makes Shantou become an important outward-bound port in South China of the national railway trunk line. At Shantou Airport, 42 domestic and international airlines have been put into operation, with a passenger handling capacity of 3 million person times. The technology in telecommunication in Shantou is at an advanced level. The No.2 Euro-Asia, China-U.S., Asian-Pacific international cable landed on Shantou, turning the City into an important juncture of international cyber expressway. Shantou has become one of the biggest international undersea cable pivots in the world. A modern system of infrastructure facilities with auxiliary communications in land, air and sea with ample supply of electric power and developed telecommunication has been basically formed.

Shantou has long enjoyed the name of "Origins of Culture on the Coast". With its picturesque sights, beautiful landscape and rich cultural relics, Shantou was acclaimed as "Fine Tourist City in China". The major spots are: Queshi Scenic Spot, Qingyun Crag, CITIC holidaying village, Longchuan Crag, the Signal Tower of the Tropic of Cancer; in Chaoyang City there are Lotus Peaks, Lingshan Temple, Buddhas of Xiancheng, in Chenghai, there are the old place of the Ancient Port at Zhanglin, Tashan Scenic Spot, the old residence of Chen Cihuang and Laiwu Bathing Beach; in Nan Ao there are Xiongzhen Pass, Song Well, Prince Building, Stromatolite Rocks, Mazu Temple, and also Qing Ao Bay Beach, Birds Island, National Island Forest Park on Huanghua Mountain.

The year 2001 is the year of important turning point in the economic development in Shantou, and also a year of overcoming the difficulty and pressing forward. The City was engaged in life of the New Century engineering of "rebuilding credibility, recasting the image", normalizing the order of market economy and social order, promoting the healthy development of economic society. The Municipality asserted the thinking of "building up the city with credibility, invigorating the city with famous brands, and strengthening the city with industries" working with great effort on the building up of the environment for investment, and reinforcing the attraction of inviting business and investment. The systems of responsibility of the person in charge, of twice termination, of promise of service and of official business carried on in an open way, with emphasis on the transformation of working style, and raising of efficiency; a batch of measures to promote economy were formulated, such as the price of land for industrial use being reduced to 40% and 50%, the port dredging fee and loading fee being reduced by 30% and 20% respectively, exemption of the fee for expansion of supply capacity and increased loading fee of water supply incurred by the newly established industrial enterprises and those already in operation, so as to reinforce the attraction of investment; going along with structural reformation, the municipal administrative service center of investment of enterprises was established for organization and coordination of the examination and approval of projects, acceptance of completion of construction, annual examination, hearing complaints from enterprises, coordinating problems concerning investment by businessmen, providing streamlined services in establishing, production, managing and developing activities of enterprises. As a trial city in building up credibility, Shantou is working towards the target of becoming one of the best cities with good credibility in the country, taking the lead in building up the information network of credibility, which will be the first network of the kind opened up by local government.

　　In 2001, a batch of key projects were completed and put one after another into operation like the main body project of Phase II of Zhudi port area of Shantou Port, the Swimming and Diving Hall, Information Building of East Guangdong, Junhua Hotel of Shantou. Shantou Swimming and Diving Hall, a venue for the diving contest of the 9th National Games, was a new symbolic construction of Shantou, invested with 0.35 billion yuan by the Municipality. It of a first rate of design, and of facilities. The Shan-Fen Expressway, a key project of the state, was opened to traffic on November 28, 2001, with a trunk line of 67.6 kilometers long. There are 4 newly built berths of ten-thousand-ton class, 5 new bus routes, 36,000 square kilometers of newly paved roads, and 46, 000 square kilometers of new lawns. The reconstruction of Wuqiao Bridge and Guanghua Bridge have been completed basically. The project of the viaduct of Jinfeng Bridge-the West Port has gone underway. The reconstruction of Jinhong Highway of Chenghai has started. The construction of Passenger Center of the pivot of highways has been quickened. The Phase II of the project of the international sea cable landing is basically completed. The urban IP network has been set up. 0.22 billion yuan was invested into the construction of water conservancy. The key projects have started one after another such as the reinforcement of the Great Dyke of Shantou and the reconstruction of flood gate of Waisha.

According to the "Over-all Plan of the City of Shantou", through the effort of 20 years, the City will be built into a SEZ city with modern ports and strong regional functions in all-round services, a garden-like coastal city with prosperous economy, social civilization, and fine environment, and with the characteristics of a homeland of overseas Chinese.

Shantou Hotels