| Introduction |
Hong Kong is one of the three natural harbors in the world. The harbor is wide and deep, calm, non-silting and non-freezing, and has many channels. The world is competing to make use of this good port with superior conditions and moderate location, making it one of the world's famous free ports and "Zhifeng Island" as one of the important shipping centers. The main port area, Victoria Harbour, is located near the Victoria Strait, with a total area of 60 square kilometers and an average water depth of 12 meters. There are three bays and two levees in the harbour, which can avoid waves by breeze. There are three main access channels, which are the gateways to Hong Kong. The harbor area has vast waters and can berth 50 huge ships at the same time. The 10,000-ton ocean-going ships can enter and leave the harbor all day. There are 72 berths for ocean-going ships in the harbor, 43 of which can be berthed by giant ships up to 183 meters long. In 2003, the port throughput was 207.6 billion tons, one of the world's largest ports. Container transportation has developed rapidly, with a throughput of 20.45 million tons in 2003 and 21.93 million tons in 2004, ranking first in the world. At present, there are six container terminals, more than 70 huge berths and 90 hectares of container unloading area. All kinds of transportation equipment, navigational aids and port communication equipment are advanced in the whole port area. Ships entering and leaving the port only need more than ten hours to berth, and the efficiency is the highest in the world's major ports. |
