Shanghai-based China Shipping Group plans to invest 3.5 billion yuan (US$422 million) in Lianyungang in northeast Jiangsu Province before 2009 to build five container berths with a handling capacity of 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units annually.
"The new project with China Shipping Group will enable Lianyungang's port to become a 100-million-ton-capacity port," said Liu Yongzhong, mayor of Lianyungang.
Throughput of the city's port is expected to reach 43 million tons with 500,000 TEUs this year. The city plans to raise the throughput to 50 million tons next year, and expects the capacity of TEUs to sprint to 1 million.
According to Liu, situated at the Yangtze River Delta, Lianyungang will play a more important role for the region which needs more materials due to the manufacturing and other industries.
Besides shipping, the city will cooperate with Shanghai in other businesses.
Hualian Supermarket Co Ltd and Shanghai NGS Supermarket Co Ltd, the two major supermarket companies from Shanghai, have launched their chain stores in the city.
By the end of June this year, Shanghai had invested a total of 327 million yuan in Lianyungang, accounting for 7.9 percent of the city's total investment.
There are plans to link Lianyungang to Rotterdam in Holland via the 10,900-kilometer-long New Eurasia Continental Railway. The railway will connect China with more than 30 other countries from the Middle East and Europe.
The city also has an excellent urban road network and road access to other cities.
Lianyungang also has several tourist attractions including the Huaguo Mountains, the hometown of the Monkey King, the hero from the legend, "The Journey to The West," one of the oldest and popular classic novels in China.