Detailed introduction on Guizhou's development

Guizhou, whose abbreviation is Qian or Gui, is located on the watershed area of the Yangzi River and the Pearl River with its northern part adjacent to Sichuan Province, its southern part next to Guangxi Province, its eastern part right next to Hunan Province and its western part adjacent to Yunnan Province. It is the major part of the Guizhou Plateau, whose origin is the sub-tropical Karst plateau between the Sichuan Basin and Guangxi Mesas. Its area is over 170,000 square kilometers. The greatest height above the sea level is 2,400 meters in the western part of this province. It gradually lowers down to 1,400~1,200 meters in the middle and 800~500 meters in the eastern part. There are significant ladder-like slides among different height level lands. The general situation is height drops down from the middle part to the further southern and northern parts. Due to the geological factors, rivers and waters in this province, for instance, Wujiang, Beipaniiang, Qingshuiiang, Duliujiang and Lianjiang, all flow from the western and middle parts to the northern, eastern and southern parts of the province. The average height above the sea level of this plateau is about 1,100 meters with separate peaks of 1,500~2,500 meters, which are Daloushan Mountain in the North, Wulingshan Mountain in the Northeast, Wumengshan Mountain in the West and Henggenshan Mountain in the West and Miaoling Mountain in the Southeast. All these mountains are the typical layout of different geographical tectonic movement, which built up the skeletons of the Guizhou Plateau.

With the great effect of fifty years since the Reform and Opening up, the social and economic situation in this province has been changed tremendously. It gradually built up the economic system based on the provincial resources and materials, machinery and textile manufacturing as the leading industries. Up till now, this province has a number of famous brands and renowned enterprises in the field of aviation, electronics, steel, electrolytic aluminum, ferroalloy, grinding apparatus, equipment foundry, car ties, nitrogenous fertilizers, cigarettes and alcohols. The infrastructure construction of this province was also greatly improved. There are five railways of Guiqun, Xiangqian, Chuanqian, Qiangui and Nanqun connecting the major areas of the province. The construction of electronic railways was in the leading level nation wide. The total length of roads reached 33,000 kilometers with 5 national level roads and 30 provincial level roads. The highways connecting Zhuzhou to Liupanshui, Guiyang to Zuyi, Guiyang to Xinzai were also accomplished. The double line of the Zhuzhou-Liupanshui highway and the part from Guiyang to Bijie were also under construction. The Guiyang Longpan Airport was also in operation since May 1997 with more than 200 daily flights connecting 31 major domestic cities and Hong Kong, Macau areas. The telecommunication industry also achieved greatly building up a modern advanced telecommunication network with the utility of cables, satellites and digital microwave techniques. The total number of the remote controlling telephone in this province reached 1.515 million. In order to better attract and introduce FDI, the provincial government of Guizhou launched a new policy of “Regulations on the Improvement of the International Investment Environment” to further opened up beneficial policies for international investors.

The population of Guizhou Province is 355.6 million. There are a lot of minority nationality groups, including Miao, Buyi, Tong, Yi, Shui, Hui, Qimu, Zhuang, Yao, Man, Bai, Tujia minority groups, which in all take up 31.48% of the total provincial population. There are 4 different jurisdiction regions, 3 autonomous states, 2 town-level cities, 9 county-level cities, 57 counties, 11 autonomous counties and 3 special administrative districts.

In the first three seasons of 2005, the provincial economy is under steady and healthy growing trend. The total GDP of the whole province is 125.668 billion RMB with a 11.6% growth compared to the same period last year. The GDP of its Primary Industry is 25.214 billion RMB with a growth of 4.4% by comparison. The GDP of its Secondary Industry is 60.643 billion RMB with a growth of 12.2%, while the GDP of its Tertiary Industry is 39.81 billion RMB with a growth of 13.6%. The social investment on fixed assets achieved 63.934 billion RMB with a growth of 21%. The local financing income is 12.835 billion RMB with a big growth of 23.6%. The average cash income of farmers also witnessed a growth of 9.6%. In general, the economy situation of the first three seasons is much better than expected with faster growth rates, higher economic operation situation and more stable benefit increase.