The port is an important transportation infrastructure, which is a window to the export-oriented economy and provides basic support for the development of national economy and foreign trade. Mainland China main ports had occupied the important status in the world, and ranks top in ports of the world, its container throughput has for many years the world's first, become the world's largest port throughput and container throughput, the fastest growing countries.
In 2010, ningbo - zhoushan port to 633 million tons in the world's top ten cargo port of the first, in addition, all eight container ports in mainland China into 30, one of the five ports in the top 10, half the world's top ten container ports. However, in the 2002 container port rankings, only Shanghai and shenzhen were the top 10 container ports in China. Qingdao port entered the top 20, ningbo and xiamen port in the top 30, dalian port outside 50.
With the deepening of China's reform and opening up, China's import and export volume has been constantly climbing, and the port throughput and container throughput have all achieved relatively fast development. In 2010, the country's ports completed 8.932 million tons of cargo, an increase of 16.7% over the previous year, and a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percentage points. The "eleventh five-year plan" was an average annual increase of 13.0%. The total container throughput of the country's ports was 146 million TEU, up 19.4 percent over the previous year, and 27.7 percent and 13.9 percent respectively, compared with the peak years before the financial crisis, 2007 and 2008.