Cangzhou mayor Liu Xueku, also general director for the Huanghua Comprehensive Port construction, speaks at a mobilization conference on April 21. Photo by Liu Xiang.

Huanghua Comprehensive Port in Cangzhou city, Hebei province started its 100-day countdown to begin operation on Aug 1.

Huanghua Comprehensive Port is the second link in China for transport of coal from western China to the east and handled 80 million tons last year.

Cangzhou mayor Liu Xueku, also general director for the port construction, pressed the countdown button at a mobilization conference on April 21.

The port will serve as an opening up platform for Hebei province as well as cultivate a new growth center for the province, Liu said.

Huanghua Port is expected to serve southern Hebei's six inland cities, including Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital, and Baoding.

Huang Jianhua, managing director of the Hebei Port Group, the Huanghua port constructor, pledged to go all out to make sure the port will go into operation on Aug 1.

By Liu Xiang and Guo Changdong