Shantou , also known as
Swatow or
Santow, is a
prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of
Guangdong province,
People's Republic of China, with a total population of 5,391,028 as of 2010 and an administrative area of . Shantou has direct jurisdiction over six districts and one county, and the six urban districts of Shantou have a population of 5,330,764. With it and the surrounding cities of
Jieyang and
Chaozhou, the metropolitan region known as
Chaoshan covers an area of , and had a permanent population of 13,937,897 at the end of 2010. It's built up area spread of 11 districts was home to 11,635,577 inhabitants at the 2010 census.