Bohai Sea

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A map showing the location of the Bo Hai.

For other uses, see Bohai.

Bo Hai (Chinese: 渤海; pinyin: Bó Hăi), also known as Bohai Sea or Bohai Bay or Bohai Gulf, is the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea on the coast of northeastern China. It is approximately 78,000 km², and its proximity to Beijing, the capital of China, make it one of the busiest seaways in the world.

In recent decades, petroleum and natural gas deposits have been discovered in Bo Hai.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Pollution
4 Jiaozhou Bay-Laizhou Bay Canal
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Geography

The gulf is formed by the Liaodong Peninsula to the northeast and the Shandong Peninsula to the south. Bo Hai consists of three bays: Laizhou Bay to the south, Liaodong Bay to the north, and Bohai Wan to the west. The rivers Huang He, Liao He, Hai He and Luan River empty into Bo Hai.

Bo Hai borders the Chinese provinces of Shandong, Liaoning, and Hebei, and Tianjin municipality. Port cities on Bo Hai coast include:

Hebei: Qinhuangdao
Liaoning: Dalian, Huludao, Jinzhou, Yingkou
Shandong: Longkou, Weihai, Yantai
Tianjin: Tanggu

Islands include:

Zhifu Island, part of Yantai City, Shandong Province

[edit] History

In literature until the early 20th century, Bo Hai was sometimes called Gulf of Chihli (直隸 Zhílì) or the Gulf of Pechihli (北直隸 Běizhílì). Zhili and Beizhili were old names for the contemporary Chinese province of Hebei.

[edit] Pollution

In October, 2006, experts predicted that a failure to control pollution will cause large areas of the Bo Hai to become dead seas within a decade.^{[citation needed]}

A Xinhua News Agency report in February, 2007, painted a terrible scene: “Effluent has turned the sea a dark red and given it an acrid stench at Guanxi’s Silver Beach, a national tourist attraction. Local staff it is not the first time this has happened – sometimes it occurs every few days. they blame the cleaning run-off from nearby shellfish processing plants.” [1]

[edit] Jiaozhou Bay-Laizhou Bay Canal

This article or section contains information about planned or expected future infrastructure.
It may contain speculative information and may change upon or during construction.

In April, 2004, an official of the Shandong province raised the possibility of constructing a canal between Jiaozhou Bay and Laizhou Bay as a means of easing the pollution problem in the Bo Hai. [2] The proposed canal will also be open to ships traveling between Bo Hai and Yellow Sea. A meeting held in Qingdao in October, 2006, was attended by more than a hundred members of the academia.