A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic and rod-shaped bacterium, strain Y2R2T, was isolated from a saline–alkali soil sample collected from Binhai New Area, Tianjin, PR China. Growth of strain Y2R2T was observed at 10–45 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 6.0–11.0 (optimum, pH 9.0) and in the presence of 0–15 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 9.0 %). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain Y2R2T was affiliated with the genus Halomonas and showed the highest similarity to Halomonas huangheensis BJGMM-B45T (99.0%) and Halomonas cupida DSM 4740T (98.4%). The digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values of 21.0–22.8 % and 73.3–75.7 % with the closely related species H. huangheensis BJGMM-B45T, H. cupida DSM 4740T, H. ventosae AL12T, H. stenophila N12T and H. litopenaei SYSU ZJ2214T were lower than the threshold recommended for species discrimination. The major respiratory quinone of strain Y2R2T was Q-9 and the major cellular fatty acids consisted of C16 : 0, C19 : 0 cyclo ω8c and summed feature 8 (C18 : 1 ω7c and/or C18 : 1 ω6c). The DNA G+C content of strain Y2R2T was 57.0 mol%. On the basis of this polyphasic taxonomic study, strain Y2R2T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Halomonas , for which the name Halomonas binhaiensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Y2R2T (=CGMCC 1.16974T=KCTC 72578T).