In 1954, a small slipway was built on the coast of Huludao, a city on the western shore of the Liaodong Peninsula in Liaoning Province. From this modest beginning grew something of enormous strategic significance: the Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Company, China's first and only shipyard capable of building nuclear submarines. Now part of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, Bohai has expanded over seven decades from that single slipway into one of the largest and most strategically important naval facilities in Asia, its growth charting China's transformation from a coastal defense navy to a blue-water power.
The shipyard's early expansion in the 1960s reflected the urgency of the Cold War arms race. A large building hall with four submarine construction bays and a graving dock was added, and in November 1968, construction of China's first nuclear submarine began. The decision to pursue nuclear-powered submarines was driven by the same logic that motivated the American, Soviet, British, and French programs: nuclear propulsion offered virtually unlimited underwater endurance, transforming submarines from short-range coastal defenders into weapons of global reach. That China chose Huludao -- sheltered within the Bohai Sea, far from the exposed Pacific coast -- suggests the strategic calculation behind every aspect of the program.
Growth has been relentless. Between 2003 and 2007, the yard expanded around the basin to the east, adding a fitting-out wharf on the north shore and two new graving docks on the east shore. From 2008 to 2015, land reclamation added 185 acres to the east. In 2015, additional submarine construction facilities began rising on this newly created land, with the first stage completed in 2019. By 2024, these expansions had added 20 more submarine building bays to the facility. The scale of the civilian side is equally imposing: by 2017, Bohai claimed China's largest covered berths, two 300,000-deadweight-ton dry docks, a 150,000-ton semi-dock building berth, and a 50,000-ton flooding dock. The yard's stated capacity was ships up to 400,000 deadweight tons, with an annual output of four million tons.
Bohai has always maintained a dual civilian-military character. While its strategic importance rests on submarine construction, the yard also builds merchant vessels, leveraging the same infrastructure and workforce for commercial shipbuilding. This dual-use model is common in Chinese state-owned shipyards and serves multiple purposes: it keeps the workforce employed between military orders, generates commercial revenue, and maintains the broad engineering capabilities that complex naval construction demands. The yard's corporate lineage reflects the consolidation of China's defense industrial base -- it was at various points part of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and directly owned by the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company before being folded into the China State Shipbuilding Corporation.
Huludao's location is integral to the shipyard's role. Situated within the semi-enclosed Bohai Sea, the yard enjoys natural protection from the open ocean, with the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas forming a narrow strait that functions as a geographic chokepoint. Submarines launched from Bohai must transit this strait to reach the Yellow Sea and then the open Pacific, but the enclosed waters provide a sheltered environment for construction, fitting out, and initial sea trials. From the air, the facility's scale is unmistakable: the covered building halls, the multiple dry docks, and the basin's expansion into reclaimed land tell the story of seven decades of continuous investment in a capability that China considers fundamental to its national defense.
Located at 40.72°N, 121.01°E on the coast of Huludao, Liaoning Province, on the western shore of the Liaodong Peninsula within the Bohai Sea. The shipyard's covered building halls, dry docks, and basin are clearly visible from the air. Nearest airport: Jinzhou Bay Airport. Recommended viewing altitude: 10,000-15,000 ft. The naval base is adjacent to the shipyard facilities.