Bohai Sea

On the coast of Northeastern China you will find the Bohai Sea. It has many other names too which you might have heard: Pohai Bay, Bo Gulf and the Bohai Gulf. This is actually one of the busiest waterways in the whole world due to its important location! It is located close by to Beijing which is the capital city of China. It has only been known as the Bohai Sea since the 1900s. It had even more names before then: the Gulf of Chihli, Pechili and the Gulf of Pechili – this sea must be pretty confused!

Bohai Sea for Kids

• Did you know that this sea is measured to be approximately 78,000 km (30 116 square miles)?
• There are many important ports in the Bohai Sea because it is so important for trade. These ports are: Tianjin Port, Port of Jingtang, Port of Tangshan, Port of Yingkou and the Port of Tangshan Caofeidian.
• Beijing isn’t the only major city that is located nearby to the Bohai Sea, there are others that are actually along its coast. These are: Weifang, Weihai, Laizhou, Dalian, Yantai and Tianjin, just to name a few!
• The Bohai Sea isn’t only useful for transporting goods; it also has gas and oil reserves in it! Sadly, this means that there are frequent oil spills which are bad for the health of the sea life.
• In 2011 alone, there were three oil spills in the short space of two months! It is great to have resources but we must protect other resources like wildlife too.
• This area produces up to half a million barrels a day but the amount is apparently declining.
• Did you know that they actually want to build tunnels across parts of the Bohai Sea in order to connect cities to each other?
• This concept dates back to 1994 and people thought that it would be completed by 2010.
• The estimated cost of this process of tunnel building was $10 billion!
• The tunnel would have been a road and rail tunnel across the Bohai straight and would connect the Liaodong and Shandong peninsulas. There is a new plan thought!
• The new plan was drawn up in 2013 with a 123 km tunnel (76 miles) that would go between Dalian, Yantai, Liaoning and Shandong.
• The combination of oil spills and a growing economy due to the trade routes and ports in this area have caused extreme pollution. This pollution has also affected the water! It is thought that it has affected around 22% of the Bohai Sea water.
• The marine life in the area is also being affected by the high salinity due to the runoff from the Yellow River. Salinity is the high concentration of salt in the water.

Questions

1. Name two other names for the Bohai Sea after the 1900s?

2. What two natural resources are found here?

3. What concept was thought of in 1994?

4. What percentage of the water in the Bohai Sea is polluted?

5. Which city capital is close to the Bohai Sea?