PEI-HAI

Pinyin Beihai, also called Pak-hoi, city and port in the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi, China. The city was in Kwangtung Province until 1965, when it became part of Kwangsi. It is on the shore of a small peninsula on the eastern side of Ch'in-chou Bay on the Gulf of Tonkin, immediately south of the delta of the Nan-liu River, about 12 1/2 miles (20 km) south of Ho-p'u. Pei-hai was opened to foreign trade in 1876. Despite its poor harbour, badly exposed to northerly winds and impeded by sandbanks, Pei-hai became a moderately important port and the principal outlet for the trade of southern and western Kwangsi. Later the opening to trade of Wu-chou on the Hsi River and of Meng-tzu on the Red River in Yunnan Province robbed Pei-hai of much of its importance, and it became no more than a minor port, much of its foreign trade being in the hands of French trading companies. Pei-hai enjoyed a revival after 1937, when the Sino-Japanese War (193745) began, but in 1940 it was itself occupied by the Japanese. Since 1949 Pei-hai has flourished as one of the most important fishing ports of southern China. Although much of the fishing fleet was destroyed during World War II, after 1945 the fishing industry was rapidly rehabilitated. After 1949 Pei-hai developed a shipbuilding industry for small craft and also began to manufacture cables, sails, and nets; a canning industry was established, and there are plants making such various fish products as fish-liver oil, dried fish, and glue. As the nearest Chinese port to Vietnam, Pei-hai traditionally had strong trading links with the Vietnamese port of Haiphong. In 1984 it became one of 14 Chinese coastal cities opened to Western trade and investment. Pop. (1985 est.) city centre, 115,700; city, 171,600.