The local space context of Qinhuangdao as this registry holds it — the catalogued
human footprint on the ground around it, the orbits that can pass overhead, and the geostationary belt
seen from here.
position
39.941° N, 119.589° E
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
population
759,718 inhabitants
GeoNames (geonames.org) — CC BY 4.0
On the ground within 1000 km
Launch sites — 57 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
51St Base, Fengrun, Tangshan, Hebei province
128 km W (266°)
39.856° N, 118.093° E
gcat-sites
Huludao Shipyard test site
133 km NE (50°)
40.700° N, 120.800° E
gcat-sites
Jinzhou missile base, Liaoning province
193 km NE (43°)
41.190° N, 121.170° E
gcat-sites
Bohai launch area (Some Yellow Sea launches may also be here)
196 km SE (144°)
38.500° N, 120.900° E
gcat-sites
410 Brigate Missile Base, Dengshahe, Liaoning province
226 km ESE (110°)
39.229° N, 122.054° E
gcat-sites
Haiyang test site, Shandong
376 km SSE (158°)
36.800° N, 121.200° E
gcat-sites
Uiju launch location, N Pyongan province, N Korea
425 km E (87°)
40.026° N, 124.578° E
gcat-sites
Jianggezhuang Submarine Base
435 km SSE (168°)
36.104° N, 120.579° E
gcat-sites
Dongrim (Tongrim), N Pyongan Prov.
436 km E (89°)
39.900° N, 124.700° E
gcat-sites
Sohae Launch Site, Tongch'ang-dong, Pyongang-bukdo (N Pyongan Prov), N Korea
438 km E (92°)
39.660° N, 124.706° E
gcat-sites
822 Brigade missile base, Laiwu, Shangdong province
443 km SSW (202°)
36.235° N, 117.716° E
gcat-sites
Sonchon, N Pyongan Prov.
453 km E (90°)
39.800° N, 124.900° E
gcat-sites
Musudan launch site, Banghyon Airport, Kusong City, N Pyongan Prov.
478 km E (89°)
39.900° N, 125.200° E
gcat-sites
Taegwan Kun missile launch site
487 km E (85°)
40.200° N, 125.300° E
gcat-sites
Kwail? Launch site in S Hwanghae Province
497 km ESE (108°)
38.426° N, 125.019° E
gcat-sites
… and 42 more within 1000 km
Ground stations and transmitting sites — 1 within 1000 km
site
distance · bearing
position
source layer
Punggye-ri
814 km ENE (76°)
41.280° N, 129.080° E
nuclear-tests
Announced launches (their pads) — 2 within 1000 km
Distances are great-circle on a sphere of mean radius 6,371 km; bearings are initial true
bearings from the city. Each position is the source catalogue's own, read back from the registry.
What can pass overhead
Of the 23,251 artificial objects the registry places in Earth orbit
on 2026-10-18, 19,984 fly orbits whose ground
track reaches 39.941° N, so they can pass directly overhead; the other
3,267 never reach this latitude.
Computed: an orbit's equatorial inclination bounds the latitudes its track reaches (inclination
i, or 180° − i when retrograde), from the orbital elements the registry holds. «Can pass overhead» is
geometry, not a schedule — when, and whether it is lit and visible, depends on the hour.
The geostationary belt from here
The geostationary belt arcs across the southern sky and stands
43.8° above the horizon due south — the
elevation to aim at for a satellite at this city's own longitude. Computed: spherical Earth
(equatorial radius 6,378.137 km), circular orbit of one sidereal day (42,164 km); good to a few tenths of a
degree.
What this page does not know
Tonight's sky and pass times. They depend on the hour, so a static page would print a
stale number. Open the live scene in a browser: /sim.html#sel=EARTH&tn=1,
then stand at Qinhuangdao in Stargazing — it computes which satellites are visible now, from this
registry, in your browser.
Anything not catalogued. A site absent from the source catalogues is absent here; an
empty list means «not in the registry», not «nothing there».
Precision beyond the sources. Positions carry the precision their catalogue published.