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.