This paper discusses factors affecting current and future port development in China under Chinese market economy and increasingly larger size of ocean freighters and containerization of cargo. These factors are: (1) physical conditions. It is still the most important factor to affect the port development. Water depth, wave condition and land space adjacent to the port are some of the key factors to determine the port development. Along with the process of containerization, the water depth of the navigation channel will be at least 15 m. (2) hinterland. A port should have an extensive hinterland. With the rapid development of economy and transportation in China, the scope of hinterland has changed greatly. (3) containerization. Containerization is one of the most remarkable characteristics of the current ocean transportation; throughput of containers is the most important factor in the ranking of world’s ports. A container ship of the fifth generation which has been put into use in China can load more than 5 000 TEU . Meanwhile, containerization has also changed the distributing way of port cargo, express way instead of traditional shipment will be the main means for distribution. Container shipping lines and frequency of departure of container ships are also two of the important factors to determine the distributing conditions. Because of limited ocean container ship routes and frequency of departure of container ships, Shanghai will be only a regional container shipping center during a given time. (4) fresh water resources. Fresh water resources often determine the port scale. (5) support of great cities and large enterprises. Great cities and large enterprises will supply plenty of cargoes and excellent distributing conditions, their strong support will fasten the port development. (6) port service system. Port service system will ensure the efficient work of the port. Except Hongkong, efficiency of container transport in China is still low and has a long way to go to improve her position in international container shipping market. A preliminary conclusion is : socio economic factors and human actions are exerting greater influence on development of Chinese ports, while the traditional notion “port as the base of city development” is no longer totally true. The construction of shanghai International Shipping Center has great significance in port development of the whole country. It will be a port group, consisting of a center port——Shanghai, two sub center ports Beilun on the south and Taicang on the north, and a number of major tributary and feeder ports. A rational division of port functions is of utmost importance so that favorable conditions fo one port could be used to help less favored ports and duplication in berth construction and irrational competition among ports could be avoided. Shanghai as a center port of Changjiang delta must also be a container hub port. For improving the transportation efficiency and economic benefit, container shipping should be concentrated in Shanghai, for it has several advantages except the limitation of water depth. Beilun should fully take advantage of her deepwater and develop inter continental container traffic, however, its development is limited by the small hinterland, poor port service system, fewer ocean container ship routes, so it needs to be greatly innovated to meet the demand of sub center port of Shanghai international shipping center. Taicang has the best conprehensive conditions. It will be constructed jointly by Jiangsu province, Suzhou city and COSCO. Taicang has the Suzhou city and Wuxi city as its direct hinterland, these two cities will supply plenty of containers, and good distributing conditions. As one of the investors, the construction of International COSCO city in Taicang will be speed up to catch the development of Shanghai International Shipping Center, COSCO is the fourth largest ocean container carrier in the world, with her support, it can be foreseen that new ocean container ship routes will be opened from Taicang to all over the world.