Linyi City

I. Facts about Linyi
Linyi city lies in the southeast of Shandong Province, with Rizhao to the east, Zaozhuang, Jining, Tai，an to the west, Zibo, Weifang to the north, Jiangsu Province to the south. It is close to the Yellow Sea in the east. The climate in Linyi is temperate with four distinctive seasons; the average temperature is 12°C. The frost-free period amounts up to more than 250 days annually. It has a rich precipitation, with the annual rainfall amount 850mm and the relative humidity 68%. The city covers an area of 17,184km2, with mountain areas, hilly land and plains taking 1/3 respectively.

Linyi exercises jurisdiction over 9 counties---Linshu, Tancheng, Cangshan, Junan, Yishui, Pngyi, Feixian and Mengyin as well as three districts---Lanshan, Luozhuang and Hedong. With a total population of 10 million, Linyi is the largest administrative division of the whole province in terms of area and population. It is also a new rising city in industry, trade and tourism.

Linyi is an ancient city with splendid culture. It has a history of more than 2,400 years. There are many ancient cultural relics in the city. More than 40 historical and cultural sites are under provincial and state protection. In1992, Linyi was listed as a provincial-level historical and cultural city by the People's Government of Shandong Province. Some of the places have become tourist resorts with distinctive features, such as The Museum of Bamboo Slips Unearthed from Linyi Yinqueshan Tomb of the Han Dynasty, the Former Residence of Wang Xizhi, Linyi Municipal Museum, Zhuge Liang's Memorial Museum and Yinan Beizhai Painted Stone Tombs of the Han Dynasty. The Bamboo Slips Museum of the Yinqueshan Tomb of the Han Dynasty is located in the city. More than 7,500 pieces of bamboo slips were found in 1972, including the ancient books as Sun Zi's Art of War, Sun Bin's Art of War, Liutao and Weiliaozi. The excavation of Sun Bin's Art of War and Sun Zi's Art of War at the same time shocked the world, especially the former, which had been lost for about 1,700 years. The excavation was listed among the 10 greatest archaeological discoveries in China in the 1970s. From ancient times Linyi had given births to many famous talents, such as the famous politician and strategist Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdom Periods (220-280 AD) and the famous calligrapher sage, Wang Xizhi of the Jin Dynasty (165-420 AD).

II. Natural Resources
Linyi has a comparatively large variety of mineral resources with a large distribution. There are 26 kinds of proven minerals. Among them, the deposits of diamond, granite, quartzite, pottery and porcelain's clay and alum stone rank the top in Shandong Province. Linyi is one of the two main diamond production bases in China. The famous "Changlin Diamond" was discovered here. Besides, it is also one of the important gold production areas.

Linyi is rich in water resources. The average annual rainfall is 824.8 mm. The total amount of water resources reaches 5.96 billion m3, with the 5.16 billion m3 surface water; the annual amount of exploitable under ground water can reach 1.8 billion m3. With 36 medium-and large-sized reservoirs, Linyi is one of the richest areas in Shandong Province in terms of freshwater resources. The natural mineral water is rich in Si, Li, Zn, Mo etc. There are two spots of terrestrial heat: one is Tangtou Hot Spring in Hedong district and the other is New Wanggou Hot Spring in Yinan County. Both are high-temperature spring and well-known recuperative spots.

Linyi owns rich specialties: the output of honeysuckle ranks the top position in the country. Ginkgo, garlic, Chinese chestnut and husbandry products rank the top position in Shandong Province. Grain, fruits and peanut rank the second position in Shandong. Linyi is called the "south vegetable garden of Shandong" due to its large scale, good quality and free from social effect pollution of vegetables. Specialties such as honeysuckle in Pingyi, garlic in Cangshan, ginkgo in Yancheng are well-known.

III. Infrastructure
Linyi is a new modern city with perfect functional and supporting utilities. Program-controlled telephone, optical-fiber telecommunications, digital microwave, cellular phone systems and wireless paging systems cover both the urban and rural areas. Internet services, international express services and various post services are readily available. Linyi has a total installed power generating capacity of 540.000 KW. The construction of a large 4x300, 000 KW power plant is in full swing. Linyi has a network of one 5.000 KV and eight 220 KV power substations.

The three-dimensional traffic structure has been set up designed to operate on land, sea and in air in Linyi. JingJing-Hu Expressway and the Asia-Euro Land Bridge Railway cross here, while Ri-Dong Expressway passes through Linyi from east to west and the coastal railway crosses its hinterland. Linyi City connects 4 national highways and 18 provincial highways. Linyi is 100 km far from Rizhao port, Lanshan Port, and Lianyun Port while 200 km far from Qingdao Port by high-class highways. Linyi has the largest airport in South Shandong with 7 national lines to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Dalian, Shenyang, Xi'an, Nanjing, Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai etc.

The traffic system in Linyi is developed very well, with a fame of “the key throat of Shandong Province and the main drag of Xuhuai area” historically. From the Langya road in Qin dynasty and the main road used exclusively by royalties in Qing dynasty, Linyi always keeps its key position within the nine provinces. Since the establishment of the PRC, especially the revolution and opening up policy, Linyi saw great change in the road transportation. The mileage reached 7660km by the end of year 2001, among which 206km is expressway, 1902.5km is national and provincial expressway, 5757.5km is township roads. The asphalt road has covered the whole urban area, and motor vehicles are accessible to all the administrative villages. In 2001, the capacity of the road transportation reached 29.59million tons and 27.04million people. The road transportation market is prosperous and in good order and shows a vigorous situation of reasonable transportation structure which is convenient both for people and for freight. Beijing-Shanghai highway crosses through the city from the south to the north while Rizhu highway goes directly to the seaport and Yanshi railway goes through the whole city. Also the main airlines of Linyi airport have been connected to over 10 cities and provinces in China. The three-dimensional traffic structure has been completely formed in Linyi.

Linyi airport is one of the largest civil airports in Shandong Province with 7 domestic airlines. The capacity of air transportation amounts to 742.8 tons, and 57,600 passengers.

Linyi enjoys convenient transportation by road with a pivot axis of transportation in the west south part of Shandong Province. The main lines of national highways go to all directions that make Linyi the most developed area in road and traffic in Shandong Province. Jinghu(Beijing-Shanghai) Expressway, Rizhao-Xi’an Expressway and Tongjiang-Sanya Expressway meet here, connecting to large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, etc.

The railway transportation is developed well. The west part of Yanshi railway intersects with the main lines of Jing-Hu and Jing-Guang (Beijing-Guangzhou) railways. The Dalian-Xiamen coastal railway under construction will connect Linyi with the Northeast China, Jiaodong Peninsula, Yangtz River Delta and Zhujiang Delta together.

Linyi enjoys convenient sea transportation. It is close to four large seaports: Qingdao, Rizhao, Lanshan and Lianyungnag. It all takes about three hours by bus from Linyi to four ports mentioned above connected by high -grade highways.

IV. Economic Development
Having gone through the rapid development after the opening-up policy, Linyi city has formed an industrial structure backed up by light industry, textile, food, machinery, chemical industry, electronics, building materials, medicine gold, pottery and porcelain, and new materials with high tech ,complete categories and market advantage. There are more than 2,000 enterprises at township level with over 3,000 kinds of products. Among them, many have become renown products sold well both at home and abroad, such as granite plates, cement, building ceramics, plaster products, engineering machinery, gardening machinery, motorcycle, knit goods, cotton yarn, food and beverage, sports shoes, household porcelain and fine chemicals and compound fertilizer. The engineering machinery covers a certain market share in the domestic market. The plant protection machinery is mainly exported to the countries and regions in Europe, America and Southeast Asia. The annual production capacity of meat products is 800,000 tons and that of cement 12 million tons. The processing capacity of granite slabs is 2.5 million sqm2. It is the base of compound and mixed fertilizers with an annual capacity of 3 million tons.

V. Opening-up
Linyi City has established cooperative relations with more than 100 countries and regions in terms of economy, technology and culture. It has attracted many international large consortia, large trade associations and foreign investors with comparatively strong economic strength in Europe, USA and Asian and Pacific areas to invest, found factories and engage in all kinds of trade activities. Presently, the fields of cooperation now mainly are textile, food, light industry, building materials, electronics, machinery, agriculture and real estate, etc. All enterprises have achieved good economic benefits.

Linyi is one of the important export bases in China. More than 800 varieties of 27 kinds have been exported to more than 100 countries and regions in Asia, America, and Africa, such as cereal and oil, food, vegetable, drawn work, silk, local specialties, handcrafts, animal products, light industry, chemical industry, medicine, hardware, minerals, textile, clothing, machinery and equipment. The total amount of export and import reached to USD$ 529.28million in 2001, increased by 45.1%.

Owing a planned construction area of 10.6 square km, Linyi New High-Tech Development Industrial Zone was established in 1992. The zone is divided into six industrial parts, including industrial ceramics, new building materials, high-tech electronics, light materials, fine chemical industry and light industry textile. With complete service installations, it has attracted investors from over 10 countries and regions, such as the USA, South Korea, Denmark, Italy, Hong Kong and Taiwan to invest and found factories in the zone.

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