Weihai City

I. Facts about Weihai
Weihai lies in the far east of Shandong peninsula, with 3 sides circled by sea. Facing Korea peninsula,Japanese archipelago in the east, connecting the inland in the west, Weihai is the nearest city in China to South Korea. The State Council approved it to be a prefecture-level city in June 1987. Weihai has four districts under its jurisdiction namely Rongcheng, Wendeng, Rushan, Huancui. It has a state-level high technology industrial zone, an economy and technology development zone and an export processing zone. Weihai covers an area of 5,436 square kilometers, with a population of 2.476 million. The downtown area is 731 square kilometers with a population of 552,000 thousand.

Weihai got the honors of the first “State Hygiene City”,“Model City Group of State Environment Protection”, “State Garden City” and “Human Living Environment Model City of China”. It is one of 40 best cities with hard environment for investment invitation, one of the top 50 cities in comprehensive economy strength, one of the best tourism cities. It was twice titled” the best model of International Dubai Improving Living Environment”. It is the only city in China that got the honor of “International Human Settlements and Environment Award of 2003”.

Weihai is rich in natural resources. 1,000 kilometers long coastline makes it one of the largest fishery production bases in China, with products such as prawn, trepan, abalone, seashell, alga and more than 300 kinds of economic fish; the main agricultural products are wheat, peanut, corn, vegetable, apple, pair, grape, fig, Chinese chestnut, etc; the Jiaodong big peanuts and other native products are famous all over the world. There are many kinds of mineral recourses, 30 kinds of which are gold, iron, copper and zinc, etc waiting to be explored. The granite of Weihai has big reserve and good quality, “Shidao Red”, “Wendeng White”, “Rushan Black” are famous at home and abroad.

II. Infrastructures
Weihai has 3 state-level first class seaports, Weihai port, Shidao port and Longyan port. A multi-functional port system with general wharf, container wharf, oil and coal wharf, etc is beginning to take shape. Many passenger and cargo shipping lines are opened to Inchon Pusan of South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao and every main port of China. There are also direct trains to Beijing,Jinan,Qingdao and other cities; After the operation of Qingdao-Weihai and Yantai-Weihai highway, the highway mileage is over 2,400 kilometers, the highway density is three times of the country average level. There are two airports within one-hour driving distance, Qingdao and Yantai. Weihai has become an important pivot of the sea transportation in China.

III. Economic Development
The economy develops at a high speed. GDP was RMB 83 billion Yuan in 2003, which increased by 17.9% over the previous year, the highest increase in Ninth Five Year Plan. Weihai has formed an industrial system with machinery, chemical industry ,light industry, textile and building materials as the pillar backed by industries such as plastic, silk, medicine, food and arts. It is the largest production base of carpet, fishing gear and mini-type woodwork tool in China. In 2003, the industrial sales income is RMB 130 billion Yuan, which increased 30%; the profit and tax is RMB 10.5 billion Yuan, which increased 24%.

IV. Opening up
Weihai is opened to the outside world in all the respects. The city is the “bridgehead” of the opening up and the forefront of the Jiaodong peninsula manufacturing base. This year, the whole city further liberates thoughts, catches opportunities, extends the level of opening up, accelerates the construction of processing and manufacturing base and develops the export-oriented economy by leaps and bounds. In 2003, 642 foreign investment enterprises were approved with contracted foreign capital value of USD $ 2.21 billion, 94.5% increased over the previous year; the actual utilization of foreign capital is USD $ 1.1 billion, 82.7% increased over previous year. The total contracted investment volume is US$7.09 billion with 3.83 billion actually utilized. Investors from all over 50 countries and regions such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, America, Taiwan, EU have come and invested in Weihai. Many MNCs among the world top 500 settled in Weihai. The total foreign trade value reached US$4.03 billion, which increased 37.8% over the same period of last year. Weihai has built up long-term and stable economic trade relationship with more than 100 countries and regions in the world. 500 kinds of products in 15 lines have been exported to the world. The economic and technological cooperation with foreign countries has come to a new stage with 4319 people working overseas and a turnover of US$ 84.59 million.

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