Shantou is adjacent to the Taiwan Province Strait in the South China Sea, near the International Golden Waterway in the Western Pacific Ocean, and about 0/95 nautical miles from Hongkong/KLOC. It is located in Chaoshan Plain, and its terrain is inclined from northwest to southeast. It is the mouth of Hanjiang River, the second largest river in Guangdong. The city has a subtropical maritime monsoon climate. The annual average temperature is 2 1℃-22℃, the annual sunshine is more than 2000 hours, and the annual rainfall is 1300- 1800 mm.
Shantou has a total area of 2064 square kilometers, of which the urban area is 3 10 square kilometers. By the end of 2000, the total population of the city was 4,588,300, including urban population 1 187 1 10,000, and the population density was 2,223 people per square kilometer. The per capita arable land area is 0. 16 mu, which is one of the most densely populated areas in China with the least per capita arable land area.
Shantou's foreign trade has a long history, and the biggest feature of economic development is extroversion. 186 1 year, Shantou was turned into a trading port, so it was called "a century-old commercial port". 192 1 year, Shantou became an important port city in southern China, with the seventh commercial sales and the third port throughput in China. Eight countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the Netherlands and Belgium, have set up consulates in Shantou and become world-famous international commercial ports. 198 1 year, Shantou set up a special economic zone and entered a new development period. 1992, Shantou was rated as "Top 50 Cities with Comprehensive Strength" and "Top 40 Cities with First Investment in Hard Environment". 1994, Shantou became one of the 55 cities with per capita GDP exceeding 10,000 yuan. 1996, the National Bureau of Statistics compared the comprehensive strength of 2 19 cities above the prefecture level, and Shantou ranked 4 1. In 2000, the city's GDP was 47.79 billion yuan, 65.438+07.5 times higher than before the establishment of the special zone. At present, Shantou has basically formed an all-round, multi-level and wide-ranging open economic structure with special economic zones as the center, bonded areas, high-tech industrial development zones and Nan 'ao Island comprehensive development experimental zone as the forefront, and Chaoyang City and Chenghai City as the two wings.