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Outline of Jilin Province
2004年4月29日
Jilin Province is abbreviated to “Ji”. It is located in the middle of northeast China, bordering Russia and DPRK to the southeast, and Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia and Liaoning to the north, west and south. In ancient times, it was Susheng Place, and the Qing Dynasty established Jilin Province, named after the Jilin City inside the territory. Its area is 187 400 square km, and its population totals 26.908 million (2001), composed of nationalities of Han, Korean, Man, Hui, Mongolian, Xibo, etc. Within its jurisdiction, there is 1 autonomous prefecture, 8 prefecture-level cities, 57 counties (prefectures, districts), and 3 autonomous counties. Its capital is Changchun.
Unique geography and topography. Jilin Province is situated in bordering regions close to the ocean. Its coastal line totals 1 438.7 km, of which are 1 206 km between China and DPRK, and 232.7 km between China and Russia. Hunchun, at the easternmost tip, is only 15 km away from the Sea of Japan, and only 4 km away from Posiet Bay of Russia. Jilin is located to the north of 40o north latitude. It has temperate continental monsoon climate, with four distinctive seasons and nice weather.
Favorable ecological environment. Jilin Province slopes down from southeast to northwest. From the east to the west, progressively, are found 4 ecological regions: primitive forests of the Changbai Mountain Ranges in the east, hilly secondary vegetation in the east and middle part, the Songliao Plain in the middle, and grassland and wetland in the west. Its ecological environment is well preserved, diversified, systematic and easy to be rehabilitated. There are 29 nature reserves throughout the province, of which are 4 national-level nature reserves and 11 provincial-level nature reserves. The area of the nature reserves accounts for 10.3% of the total land area. Forests cover as much as 42% of the land of the province, 25% higher than the national average. In the province, there are more than 200 rivers and streams, belonging respectively to the Songhua River, the Liaohe River, the Yalu River, the Tumen River, and the Suifenhe River. The drainage area of the two river systems of Songhua and Liaohe rivers makes up 78.6% of the total land area. The treatment of small river valleys has achieved remarkable successes.
Bountiful natural resources. Jilin Province is “the hometown of black earth”. Its arable land area is 4.005 million ha, accounting for 21.1% of the total land area. Its per capita land area is 0.15 ha, higher than the national average. The Songliao Plain in the middle is flat with fertile soil, known as “golden corn belt” and “hometown of soybean”. It is one of the important grain production bases in China. Jilin Province is an important forest base in China, with 8.045 million ha of forests, accounting for 82.3% of the land area designated for forests, and ranking among the first places of the country. The total living wood reserves are 850.12 million cubic meters, ranking 6th place in the country. The non-metal minerals are rich as well. It has proven that there are 83 kinds of mineral deposits. The reserves of oil shale, diatomaceous earth, wollastonite, magnesium, molybdenum, oil, etc. all rank first in the country. Jilin Province is one of the “8 big pastoral areas” in China. Its total grassland area is 2.177 million ha, of which are 1.0853 million ha of non-degraded grassland, which is one of the major production areas for commercial cattle and fine-wool sheep in China. Jilin is rich in the variety of wild animals and plants. The Changbai Mountain is an important wildlife gene bank and wild medical herbs’ base in China. There are valuable-fur animals such as mink, otter, lynx, northeast tiger, leopard, etc. rare medicine source animals, such as deer antler, frog, forest frog, and rare special products such as ginseng, pine mushroom, black edible fungus, mountain mushroom, brackens, etc. Ginseng, mink fur and deer antler are known as “three treasures of northeast China”. The output of ginseng products ranks first in the country.
Favorable ecological environment and rich resources advantages have laid a solid foundation for the sustainable economic and social development. In 1999, the State Council authorized the State Environment Protection Bureau to approve Jilin Province as a test province for the construction of ecological province in China. The major goals are as follows: The implementation of the 3 phases within 30 years will establish an ecology and environment protection model and a benefit economic system with green economy as a symbol and hi-tech as a brace, so as to overall present a whole image of green economy of Jilin Province in the 21st century.
Advantaged tourism resources. Jilin Province enjoys rich, advantageous and unique tourism resources, with various natural scenes. Its humanistic scenic spots have their own features. The beautiful Changbai Mountain national-level tourist zone – “great mountains holds the Heavenly Lake; rolling forests hide rare valuables” – is a wonderland that draws attention from all over the world. Inside the zone, there are many scenic spots, with the Baitou Mountain Heavenly Lake, Changbai Mountain peaks, Changbai waterfalls, and Changbai hot springs being the most famous. The Jilin rimed frost, poetically called as “springtime in winter”, which is as clear as crystal and jade, is praised as one of the four natural wonders of China, with the other three being Guilin Mountains and waters, Yunnan stone forests and the Yangtze River three gorges. The Songhua Lake, with its rolling waves of clear water, is a national-level tourist scenic spot, having trees after trees on both banks, clear lake and mountain reflections on the surface of the water. Sanjiaolongwan in Huinan County has deep and fuscous lakes and charming views. The Changchun Jingyuetan National-level Forest Park, with its clear lake and endless forests, is known as the “biggest manmade forests” in Asia. The Jinjiang gorge in the Changbai Mountains, the Beidahu Skiing park in Jilin City, the Xianghai Bird Nature Reserves in Tongyu, the Luotong Mountain resort in Liuhe, the Wuniu Peak National-level Forest Park in Ji’an, the Fangchuan scenery in Hunchun, the Gaogouli historic site in Ji’an, the Changchun Manchurian Puppet Emperor’s Palace, the historic sites of the puppet “eight ministries”, the Huanglongfu ancient town in Nong’an, etc. all of them are like bright and glistening cultural pearls dotting on the surface of Jilin land. In recent years, eco-tourism, represented by ice, snow, forest, and wetland, and border and foreign country tours have become the most attractive products of tourism.
Agriculture in Jilin holds an important position in the country. Jilin’s comprehensive capacity of grain production has reached as much as 11.5 billion kg. Its per capita grain possession, grain commercialization and corn exportation all rank first in the country. Livestock has become a mainstay industry in rural economy, and made up more than 42% of the total agricultural output. There are 776 agricultural industrialized Dragon-head (locomotive-like) enterprises. Enterprises, such as Deda, Dacheng, Hualong, to name only a few, have entered the front line of the same enterprises in the country. The plantation structure is being optimized all the time. “Order agriculture” has become large scale. Green foodstuffs industries have rapidly risen. “Greenhouse” agriculture has shown the tendency of scales. The levels of agricultural sci-tech, industrialization, organization and marketing have been greatly raised. Quality agricultural and livestock products are exported to more than a dozen countries and regions.
Industrial economy is developing rapidly. Being one of the old industrial bases in China, Jilin Province has fairly good basic industrial conditions. There are 237 large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises in it. The Changchun First Automobile Works is a cradle for new China’s auto industry, and its product sales rank first in the country. The Jilin Chemical Industry Group, the Changchun Rail Car Company, Jilin Forest Industry Group, the Changling Group, the Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, the Tonggang Group, the Jilin Oil Fields, etc. are all important large leading enterprises in the country. The two mainstays of auto and chemical industry keep growing, and the foodstuffs, pharmaceutical and electronic industries have become advantageous industries. The output value of the five industries accounts as much as around 70% of the total scale industrial output value. We have preliminarily formed the hi-tech industrial framework based mainly on electronic information, bioengineering, new material, advanced manufacturing, and traditional Chinese medicine. The reform of state-owned enterprises has made big headways, and 80% of the medium-sized and above state-owned enterprises of the province have gone through the reform toward company systems.
Constant opening up to the outside. Jilin Province has trade contacts *with as many as 138 countries and regions. 15 of the 500 world power multinational companies have settled down in Jilin. We have established friendly cooperative relations with 143 countries and regions, and have 42 pair friendly cities and provinces/states in 18 foreign countries. We have set up 27 development zones. Since the reform and opening up campaign, our foreign trade and overseas capital utilization have achieved outstanding results.
Outstanding advantage of sci-tech and education. Jilin Province has 584 various research institutes at and above county level, 20 key and open labs at the national and ministry level, and 10 enterprise technology centers at the national level. There are 20 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences. The number of scientists and engineers out of every 10 000 people ranks 5th place in the country, and the comprehensive sci-tech development level ranks 11th in the country. We have obvious advantages in the field of technological creation, such as bioengineering, polymer chemistry, optics, electronic information, auto intelligence, new material, modern traditional Chinese medicine, etc. Some of the subjects are taking the front positions. The Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Machinery, the Changchun Applied Chemistry Institute, the Changchun Geography Institute, etc. have rather high reputation in the country. There are 35 new higher learning institutions. There are 67 college students out of every 10 000 people, ranking 5th in the country. Jilin University, Northeast Normal University and Yanbian University have entered the national “211” project. The development level of basic education ranks in the front of the country.
Jilin Province’s economy has been developing in a sustainable, healthy and rapid manner, various careers have achieved good results, and its comprehensive economic strength has been obviously increased in the last more than 20 years. The GDP rose year by year, from 9.86 billion Yuan in 1980 to 42.53 billion Yuan in 1990, to 182.12 billion Yuan in 2000, and to more than 200 billion Yuan in 2001. The financial revenue rose year by year, from 1.44 billion Yuan in 1980 to 5.07 billion Yuan in 1990, to 18.4 billion Yuan in 2000, to more than 20 billion Yuan in 2001. In 2001, the per capital average GDP reached 7 640 Yuan, advancing from the 15th place to the 14th place in the country, which was a good beginning of the 10th five-year plan. Facing the new century, Jilin Province will implement the strategy of “revitalizing the province with science and education, development strategy spearheaded by opening-up, county breakthrough, starting careers with talents”, accelerate the processes of industrialization, information, urbanization and economic internationalization, promote the leaping-forward development of Jilin’s economy and the overall progress of society.
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