Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow[3][4] and sometimes known as Santow,[5] is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative area of 2,248.39 square kilometres (868.11 sq mi).

Shantou, a city significant in 19th-century Chinese history as one of the treaty ports established for Western trade and contact, was one of the original special economic zones of China established in the 1980s, but did not blossom in the manner that cities such as Shenzhen, Xiamen and Zhuhai did.

Shantou was a fishing village part of Tuojiang Du (鮀江都), Jieyang County during the Song dynasty.

[9] In the 1930s, as a transport hub and a merchandise distribution centre in Southeast China, Shantou Port's cargo throughput ranked third in the country.

[14] Shantou is located in eastern Guangdong with latitude spanning 23°02′33″ – 23°38′50″ N and longitude 116°14′40″ – 117°19′35″ E; the Tropic of Cancer passes through the northern part of the city, and along it there is a monument, in fact the easternmost in mainland China, at 23°26′33″N 116°35′20″E / 23.44240°N 116.58885°E / 23.44240; 116.58885.

Spring is generally overcast, while summer brings the heaviest rains of the year though is much sunnier; there are 8.2 days annually with 50 mm (1.97 in) of rainfall.

Guiyu, a populous town in Chaoyang District, is the biggest electronic waste site on earth.

In 2000, the biggest tax fraud in the history of the People's Republic of China was uncovered, estimated worthy of 32.3 billion yuan.

It was ratified by the State Council of the People's Republic of China and founded in January 1993, and it formally came into use on December of the same year after its supervision installations were checked and accepted by the General Administration of Customs.

It has been comprehensively developing export processing, storage, international trade, finance and information industry.

Former Chaoyang City was China's most populous county-level administrative region, with 2.4 million inhabitants.

Nevertheless, its built-up area spread on 11 districts, Puning city and Raoping county was home to 12,543,024 inhabitants as of 2020 census.

[1] This is de facto the fifth built-up area of China after Guangzhou-Shenzhen Pearl River Delta megacity, Shanghai-Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou conurbation, Beijing and Hangzhou-Shaoxing agglomeration.

Chaoshan dialect is a variant of Min Nan (Hokkien-Taiwanese) spoken in the neighbouring Southern Fujian and Taiwan.

The Mandarin-medium education system, widely promoted throughout China, has made most people, especially younger generations, speak Mandarin fluently.

This is demonstrated by the unusually high number of international direct flights between Bangkok and Shantou.

In addition, there are at least two Teochew-speaking air hostesses on board each China Southern flight between Shantou and Bangkok.

[28] The Teochew presence, furthermore, is evident in Singapore and Malaysia; Johor Bahru, a coastal city situated at the latter's southernmost tip, is known as 'Little Swatow', due to the majority local Chinese populace is dominantly Teochew and as well as the second largest group of the local Chinese population in Singapore.

[29] Most of the population in Shantou is non-religious or practices traditional folk religions, Buddhism, Taoism, or worship of Chinese deities and ancestors.

Public transportation is provided by bus, ferry, bike sharing system and taxi.

3Prefecture capital status established by Heilongjiang Province and not recognized by Ministry of Civil Affairs.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.